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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30436 ***
+
+HOPE MILLS;
+
+OR,
+
+BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART.
+
+BY
+
+AMANDA M. DOUGLAS,
+
+AUTHOR OF "FROM HAND TO MOUTH," "NELLY KINNARD'S KINGDOM," "IN TRUST,"
+&C., &C.
+
+                                 "Abou spake more low,
+          But cheerly still; and said, 'I pray thee, then,
+          Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.'"
+
+          LEIGH HUNT.
+
+
+          BOSTON:
+          LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.
+          NEW YORK:
+          CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM.
+
+
+
+
+THE DOUGLAS NOVELS.
+
+
+          OSBORNE OF ARROCHAR.
+          A MODERN ADAM AND EVE IN A GARDEN.
+          THE FORTUNES OF THE FARADAYS.
+          FOES OF HER HOUSEHOLD.
+          A WOMAN'S INHERITANCE.
+          CLAUDIA.
+          FLOYD GRANDON'S HONOR.
+          FROM HAND TO MOUTH.
+          HOME NOOK.
+          HOPE MILLS.
+          IN TRUST.
+          LOST IN A GREAT CITY.
+          NELLIE KINNARD'S KINGDOM.
+          OUT OF THE WRECK.
+          SEVEN DAUGHTERS.
+          STEPHEN DANE.
+          SYDNIE ADRIANCE.
+          THE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE.
+          WHOM KATHIE MARRIED.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          PRICE PER VOL., $1.50.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS,
+          BOSTON.
+
+
+          COPYRIGHT, 1879,
+          BY LEE AND SHEPARD.
+
+          _All rights reserved._
+
+
+
+
+          TO
+
+          HON. MARCUS L. WARD,
+
+          As a Tribute
+
+          TO ONE WHO HAS HELD LOYALLY TO GOD AND HIS FELLOW-MEN,
+          WHO HAS LABORED IN THE NOBLE CAUSE OF HUMANITY,
+          NOT DISHEARTENED WHEN RESULTS WERE INFREQUENT,
+          BUT CONTENT TO REAP THE REWARD
+          IN THE GREAT HEREAFTER.
+
+
+
+
+BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"THERE is Fred again with his arm around Jack Darcy's neck. I declare,
+they are worse than two romantic schoolgirls. I am so thankful Fred goes
+away to-morrow for a year! and I do hope by that time he will have
+outgrown that wretched, commonplace youth. Mother, it is very fortunate
+that Jack is the sole scion of the Darcy line; for, if there were a
+daughter, you would no doubt be called upon to receive her into the
+bosom of the family."
+
+"Which I never should do," remarked quiet, aristocratic Mrs. Lawrence,
+not even raising her eyes from her book.
+
+"Not for the sake of your only son?" continued Agatha, with an
+irritating laugh.
+
+"Don't be silly, Agatha," returned the mother, with an indifference that
+took off the point of the query.
+
+Her second sister glanced up from a bit of pencil-drawing, then lowered
+her eyes to the street where the boy friends stood, one with his arm
+over the other's shoulder.
+
+"Think of a Harvard graduate arm-in-arm with--well, a mill-hand! No
+doubt Jack's father will put him in the mill. I cannot see any sense in
+a boy of that class taking two years at the academy."
+
+On the opposite side of the room were two girls, hardly more than
+children, busily engaged in ornamenting a box with transfer-pictures.
+One had a rather haughty mien, as became a Lawrence; the other, pretty,
+piquant little Sylvie Barry, looked toward the elders, knit her brow,
+with both thought and indignation visible in its lines, and held her
+picture absently in her hand.
+
+"Why do you listen to that?" asked Irene Lawrence disdainfully. "It is
+only Jack Darcy, and he's nobody. His father works in the mill."
+
+"I know that!" was Sylvie's rather sharp retort, answering the latter
+part of the sentence merely. Child as she was, she experienced a strong
+desire to do battle, not only for Jack, but for some puzzling cause she
+could not quite comprehend. With the blood of a French duke in her
+veins, of soldiers and martyrs as well, she was a sturdy little
+democrat. It seemed cowardly not to take up arms.
+
+"That butterfly is to go next," remarked Irene, reaching out for it; and
+Sylvie held her peace, though she felt the warm blood burning in her
+cheeks.
+
+Jack Darcy did not need any champion within doors; for Fred stood up
+bravely against these three girls, and from them received his first
+impression that women were small of soul and narrow of mind. As they
+stood by the gate now, this last hour grudged to them, neither dreamed
+that this was the final canto in the poem of boyhood. They had been fast
+friends since the first day pale, puny Fred made his appearance in
+school, and was both laughed at and bullied by some boys larger in size,
+but younger in years.
+
+"He will have to get the nonsense rubbed out of him some time," thought
+Jack; "and it can never be younger." But, when the contest degenerated
+into the force of the strong against the weak, one blow of Jack's fist
+sent Brown reeling and howling.
+
+"Try a fellow of your own size next time," was Jack's pithy advice.
+
+Fred came to him, and cried hysterically in his arms. Jack had
+experienced the same feeling for some poor rescued kitten. Fred, with
+his head full of King Arthur and his knights, mythology, and bits of
+children's histories, wherein figured heroes and soldiers, elected Jack
+to the highest niche in his regard.
+
+Jack Darcy was a wonderful boy withal, a very prince of boys, who hated
+study and work, and loved play; who despised Sunday clothes and girls'
+parties; but who had not his equal for spinning a top, or raising a
+kite, and when it came to leap-frog, or short stop, he was simply
+immense. Then he always knew the best places to dig worms, and the
+little nooks where fish were sure to bite, the best chestnut and walnut
+trees; and, with years and experience, he excelled in baseball, skating,
+wrestling, leaping, and rowing. Jack Darcy was no dunce, either. Only
+one subject extinguished him entirely, and that was composition. Under
+its malign influence he sank to the level of any other boy. And here
+Fred shone pre-eminently, kindly casting his mantle over his
+friend,--further, sometimes, than a conscientious charity would have
+admitted; but a boy's conscience is quite as susceptible of a bias as
+that of older and wiser people. On the other hand, Jack wrestled
+manfully with many a tough problem on which Fred would have been
+hopelessly stranded. Once rouse the belligerent impulse in Jack, and he
+would fight his way through.
+
+These two were at different ends of the social plane. Fred's father was
+the great man of Yerbury, the present owner of Hope Mills; not only
+rich, but living in luxury. He had married Miss Agatha Hope, and by the
+death of her two brothers she had become sole heir to the Hope estate:
+though it was whispered that her brothers had left a heavy legacy of
+debts behind them. There was family on the Lawrence side as well, but
+not much money. David Lawrence had prospered beyond his wildest dreams.
+He had twice been mayor of Yerbury, gone to the State Legislature, and
+been spoken of as a possible senator; but he did not sigh for political
+distinction.
+
+Agatha was their first-born; then Frederic De Woolfe, named for some
+Hope ancestor. Two girls afterward; but Fred remained the only son. He
+was a delicate boy, and, until he reached the age of ten, studied with
+his sisters' governess, when he rebelled, and insisted upon his boy's
+prerogative of going to school. Here he met and loved Jack Darcy.
+
+Jack was a few months the elder,--a stout, hardy, robust boy, full of
+mischief, falling into scrapes, and slipping out easily. Not vicious or
+ugly; in fact, he had thrashed Ned Thomas for robbing birds' nests, been
+known to rescue a miserable kitten from its tormentors, and was always
+bringing home sore-eyed, mangy curs to be nursed and healed. If he had
+cared, he could have boasted as good a pedigree as the Hopes and the
+Lawrences. For his grandmother was of pure old French Jacobin descent,
+titled too. Many a wild romance and adventure had her family figured
+in,--now on the top round of prosperity, now in bitter poverty and
+exile. At the age of eighteen she was living on the western coast of
+Ireland with her old father, when she fell in love with handsome Jack
+Darcy, whose persuasive blue eyes were enough to melt the heart of the
+most obdurate woman; the merriest, wittiest, best-tempered lad for miles
+around, the owner of a small farm and numberless family traditions that
+counted back to the time when
+
+          "Malachi wore the collar of gold,
+             He won from the proud invader."
+
+For a while they were prosperous and happy: then came bad seasons,
+famine, and finally typhus. Two bright, handsome sons and a little
+daughter were victims, leaving only baby Bernard. They came to the New
+World, and began life again, managing thriftily, and buying a house and
+garden in the quaint old town of Yerbury. Mr. Darcy died; and his son
+grew to man's estate, settled to the business of carpenter and builder
+(as he possessed a good deal of mechanical skill), married a pretty,
+delicate girl, but did not seem to make of life a signal success. Still
+it is possible that a life of happiness and content may have its use in
+this world, if it does not serve to point a prosperous moral.
+
+He added a wing to the house, he raised fruit and flowers that were
+marvels. Grandmother preferred for several years to keep house by
+herself, raise chickens and geese, and keep putting by a little of her
+very own. They had a choice garden and a soft-eyed Alderney cow, but
+Bernard Darcy had surely missed his vocation. He should have been a
+scientific farmer.
+
+Baby Jack came to them. He certainly had not inherited the beauty of the
+Darcys nor the Beaumanoirs, not even the delicacy of his mother. The
+eyes of Irish blue were tinged with gray, his hair inclined to the
+warmer tints of chestnut, and now he always kept the curls cropped
+short. However, his magnificently shaped head was not disfigured by the
+process. He did get terribly freckled and tanned as warm weather came
+on, and the hair turned almost red by much bathing and sunshine. A
+striking contrast indeed to the handsome, well-dressed Frederic.
+
+When Fred went to the academy he pleaded for Jack to go, and Grandmother
+Darcy decided that he should. She had never taken kindly to her son's
+rather plebeian occupation. After several years of indifferent success,
+Mr. Darcy had accepted a position at the mill, in which, if there was
+not so much profit, there were no losses.
+
+Jack was not a student in an intellectual point of view. He did not
+care to be a doctor, lawyer, or clergyman, and certainly not a
+professor. He would have liked to pack a satchel, and start westward,
+prospect for a railroad, gold or silver mine, and live the rugged,
+unconventional camp-life. Once he had ventured to suggest this noble
+ambition; but his timid mother was startled out of her wits, and his
+grandmother said with a sage shake of the head,--
+
+"A rolling stone gathers no moss."
+
+"Grandmother," began Jack argumentatively, "of what real value is the
+moss to the stone, except in the picturesque aspect? Do you know that a
+great many of these time revered and honored adages are the greatest
+humbugs in the world?" asked the audacious young iconoclast. "Who wants
+to be a stone or a clod, or even a bit of velvet moss? They go to make
+up the world, it is true; but is that narrow, torpid, insensate life any
+pattern for human souls and active bodies? I think a man's business in
+this world is to find out new channels, to build up, to broaden and
+deepen, and somehow to make the world feel that he has been in it. I
+can't just explain,"--and his brows knit into a puzzled frown,--"but it
+seems to me there is something grander than plodding along and saving a
+little money."
+
+"No doubt you would be glad enough to have the money, when you have gone
+off like the prodigal son, and wasted health and substance in foreign
+lands," said grandmother with some asperity.
+
+Jack had been brought up to reverence the Bible and religion, and to
+respect his grandmother was the first article in his creed. He relapsed
+into silence, but the busy brain kept up a vigorous ferment. What was
+life all about, anyhow? Why did people come into the world, live thirty,
+sixty, or even eighty years, and then drop out of it. Was it merely to
+eat, drink, and sleep?
+
+The wider lore at the academy had a peculiar effect upon Jack, tangled
+his brain, begat confusing mental processes. Greek he hated; Latin he
+barely endured; chemistry and mineralogy interested him, and in
+mathematics he excelled. Fred carried every thing before him, graduated
+with honors, and was to enter Harvard. The Lawrences went to Newport,
+and Jack missed his bosom friend sorely. He rambled through the woods,
+read every thing that came in his way, and thought a good deal in his
+crude, undisciplined fashion.
+
+What was he to do with this tough problem of unknown quantities?
+
+He ventured at last to broach the subject to his father.
+
+Bernard Darcy studied his son gravely. Now, it must be considered that
+he had never been troubled with this hungry, perplexing view of life
+that urges one on to dip deep into the secrets of existence. To have a
+pretty house and garden, to watch his flowers, vegetables, and chickens
+grow, to dream over his books in his cosey sitting-room, not to be
+pinched for money, not to be anxious about employment, but to go on
+serenely day after day,--this was Mr. Darcy's idea of happiness; and,
+having this, he was perfectly content.
+
+His mother secretly chafed at his lack of ambition; his neighbors said,
+"A good, honest fellow, but with no 'push' in him." Curiously enough,
+the virtues that are preached from pulpits Sunday after Sunday, that we
+are always recommending to our friends, are _not_ the ones that gain any
+vast amount of credit in this life. "Be content! be content!" cries
+every one, from revelation downward; yet content, pure and simple, is
+rather despised and flouted by our fellow-men.
+
+"I don't know, Jack," said the elder, gravely shaking his head with slow
+dubiousness. "What would you do if you were once away?"
+
+"I'd go on until I found some place into which I just fitted;" and the
+boy glanced over westward with hungering eyes.
+
+"But, Jack," said his father, after a pause, "I think people oftener fit
+themselves into a place. There are so few places ready made to one's
+hand. It's always something. Now, I'll venture to say that David
+Lawrence, with all his money, doesn't see as much real happiness as I
+do. His is a slave's life, after all. It's day and night, bills to pay
+and stock to get, dissatisfied hands, poor hands spoiling work, losses
+here and there, little leisure, small peace of mind; and all for what?
+There was a time when I might have envied him: I don't now."
+
+Jack had lost all but the first two sentences.
+
+"That's the thing!" he cried, with boyish enthusiasm,--"fitting
+yourself; coming to something that takes hold of you like an
+inspiration; that you could work for, fight for, that rouses soul and
+body."
+
+Bernard Darcy studied the youthful face, eager, alert, hopeful, and with
+something else in it that he could not understand.
+
+"I never had any such dreams or desires," he said in an uncertain tone,
+as if fearful he might lose his way among his son's vagaries. "I wanted
+a pleasant home, and a loving wife and children. I wish there had been
+more of them, Jack, for your sake," and his voice took on a tender
+inflection. "Then, if one wanted to go away, there would have been
+others left. You see, Jack, mother's heart is bound up in you, and she's
+getting to be an old woman with but few ties. I might manage to comfort
+your own mother; but you are so young, Jack. There will be many years
+before you, doubtless; and if you could give a few to us," with a
+wistful, loving look. "Now, if you wanted to study"--
+
+"But I don't," in a hasty, husky tone. "I believe I hate quiet. I want
+life, adventure! I've staid in school this last year just to please
+Larry."
+
+"Have a little patience, Jack. Old people are not like young ones. They
+feel the changes keenly. And you are all we have. It would take the
+sunshine out of our lives. It would seem as if there had been a
+funeral."
+
+"Yes," said Jack with meek hopelessness that one would hardly look for
+in a vigorous boy; and winking hard to keep back some tears. No logical
+argument, no stricture of duty, could have half the weight of this bit
+of love pleading. Father was right. God had made him a son first of all,
+given him a son's duties. Jack had never troubled his head much about
+religion in any theological sense; but his simple creed had some great
+if old-fashioned truths in it.
+
+"If there's any thing you would like to do, I'd be glad to give you a
+chance. And there's no need to hurry. You may come to the right thing
+presently."
+
+Jack swallowed over a great lump in his throat. The two kittens came
+scampering up the walk, and he caught one, lifting it to his shoulder.
+Then Sylvie Barry entered the gate with her dainty milk-kettle shining
+like silver.
+
+They were in a manner neighbors, for Larch Avenue was the next street to
+Maple Place. Both streets were now given over to what is termed decayed
+gentility. The larches were old and ragged and brown with clustering
+cones, and the blue blood of the denizens had grown a little sluggish.
+
+Miss Honoria Barry and her small niece lived together, with a tall and
+gaunt handmaiden Norman French, and a broad Yorkshire gardener. Miss
+Barry was the old cream of Yerbury. Here her family had lived since the
+Huguenot persecution, and dwindled finally to two. Louis Barry was a
+dissipated spendthrift. He married, and tormented his wife into an early
+grave, and might have worn out his sister, but Providence kindly removed
+him. Miss Honoria retrenched, paid off debts and mortgage by degrees,
+and brought up Sylvie in a quaint, refined, old-world fashion.
+
+Old Mrs. Darcy and Miss Barry exchanged formal calls, and discussed la
+belle France. Sylvie took great delight in listening to grandmother's
+stories of brave heroes and handsome women who figured in old legends.
+
+Oddly enough, one of the many points of agreement between Jack and Fred
+had been their aversion to girls in general. Fred judged them from his
+sisters, who were always nagging, always exhorting him to be a
+gentleman, and always holding up Jack Darcy to ridicule. Jack, on the
+other hand, had a bashful fear of girls, and fancied they were laughing
+at every little awkwardness; then they cried so easily, went off in a
+huff if they could not have their own way, were silly, vain, and
+tattling, ready enough to beg your assistance if there was a munching
+cow by the roadside, a worm swinging from a tree, or a harmless mouse
+running across the floor. The great fascination to the Darcy house was,
+that the boys could sit in the large, clean kitchen, trying all sorts of
+crude experiments, with Ann to clear away the _débris_ and find no
+fault. Jack never wanted to go to the great house. In true boy fashion
+he understood without any explanation. But they both liked little
+Sylvie. She was taught at home except in music and drawing, and she was
+as much interested in grandmother's heroes as the two boys.
+
+On the other hand, the Hopes and the Barrys had always been great
+friends; and, from some odd freak of unlikeness, Sylvie and Irene
+Lawrence carried on the intimacy.
+
+She stopped now, and talked about the kitten with Jack; and he carried
+her milk-pail home to the gate.
+
+It was a long, wearisome vacation to poor Jack. Fishing lost its charm,
+even tramps in the woods became monotonous. He spent hours in his
+father's shop, inspecting machinery, though he seldom asked a question
+or ventured upon a remark. Indeed, some of the hands thought "Darcy's
+boy wasn't over-bright." Yet here he laid the foundation of the problem
+that was to vex and puzzle his soul in after-years. Here was the great,
+whirring machinery, belts, bands, spindles, looms, and oftentimes a
+stupid and stolid enough workman at one end, grinding out luxury and
+elegance for David Lawrence, Esq.; that his family might tread on Wilton
+and Axminster, dine from silver and crystal, dress in silks and velvets,
+drive about with high-stepping bays, and scorn all beneath them. Once as
+Jack was thinking it over he laughed aloud.
+
+"You must feel very much amused," said a rather sour-looking man
+standing near by, with a peculiar touchiness as if he had been laughed
+at.
+
+"No, I wasn't amused, I was only thinking"-- But Jack stopped in the
+middle of his sentence. Could _this_ man take any such position as that
+of Mr. Lawrence?
+
+Then he came across a volume of self-made men, which he eagerly
+devoured. Every one seemed to have commenced life without a dollar, and
+almost without friends. Were those the important factors in the race, to
+be light-weighted? And he had a triple chain.
+
+Fred returned, handsomer than ever, and doubly glad to get back to Jack.
+There was just four days grace. They revisited old haunts, talked
+endlessly and to little purpose, like so much of the talk of youth, and
+now they were parting at the gate for the last time. Unlike girls they
+exchanged no vows or kisses. It is not in boy-nature to be effusive.
+
+"To think that I shall not be home until Christmas! If only you _were_
+going with me, Jack, what jolly times we would have!"
+
+"I could have gone," answered Jack with some pride, "that is, if I had
+been prepared. Father was willing, and grandmother would have been proud
+enough;" and just then Jack wondered why going to seek his fortune
+appeared so much more terrible to them.
+
+"Well, why not, Jack?" with impetuous eagerness. "It isn't too late."
+
+"I don't want the years of study. I should come to hate the sight of a
+book. No, I'll find out where I belong, some day. Don't worry about me,"
+with an abrupt laugh.
+
+"But I am so sorry!" Then they looked into each other's eyes. All these
+years had been filled with such good, honest boy-love.
+
+"Good-by, old chap!" cried Jack suddenly; for the wrench must come, and
+lingering over it was painful. "I shall miss you lots! it seems so queer
+to be without you! Of course you'll succeed: there's no use wishing
+about that."
+
+"It's a good wish from you, Jack. Good-by. I hate awfully to say it: I
+hate to think that our jolly boyish frolics are over."
+
+"But we'll have many a good row on the river, and tramps through the
+woods. We can't outgrow every thing. And there'll be summers and
+summers."
+
+"Good-by."
+
+The gate-latch clicked: Jack walked rapidly down the street, whistling
+"Kathleen Mavourneen" unconsciously. Did he dream the simple faith of
+boyhood had reached its culmination, and was henceforth to wane?
+
+"Dear old Jack," thought Fred: "I don't know as he is quite Launcelot,
+though I used to think so at first. But there was Sir Gawain and Sir
+Bedevere and a host of worthies, and if he only _would_ he could come up
+to the highest. What makes him so obstinate and unambitious, I wonder?
+Are there any King Arthurs and loyal knights nowadays, or only common
+men and women?"
+
+His sisters opened upon him with the fatal persistency of narrow
+feminine natures.
+
+"You may say what you like about Jack Darcy," he flung out angrily, "but
+you'll never make me give him up,--never, never!"
+
+"Do hush, children," interposed Mrs. Lawrence. "Fred, I hope you will
+learn to modulate your voice, and not shriek so."
+
+Sylvie put on her hat to go home. As she passed Fred she said just above
+her breath,--
+
+"You are right and brave. I wouldn't give up my friend because he was
+poor; and Jack is so nice!"
+
+"Much she knows about it," thought Fred, with a true boyish disdain. Yet
+her approval of Jack was a virtue in his eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+"FATHER!" exclaimed Jack a few days after this parting from his bosom
+friend, "I think I will go in the mill for a year or two, if there is
+any thing for me to do. Meanwhile my inspiration may come along."
+
+"But what would you like best, Jack?"
+
+"That's just the trouble," and the youthful brows knit in perplexity.
+"All things seem alike to me: I haven't any choice."
+
+Mr. Darcy drew a long breath that was almost a sigh. If Jack only would
+evince some preference!
+
+However, a place was found as under-bookkeeper. It was desperately
+tiresome to Jack to sit perched on a high stool all day; and after three
+months of it he begged to be put at something else.
+
+At this period we had gone through our costly civil war; and, instead of
+being exhausted as friends and enemies predicted, the machinery of
+business appeared to have been set in motion with a new and overwhelming
+impetus. Every thing was wanted; everybody had work or money; and the
+most useless commodity found a purchaser: as if our anguish had crazed
+us, and we went into a delirium of mental opium, and dreamed wild,
+exhilarating dreams which we mistook for reality.
+
+Yerbury had been a slow, solid, conservative town. Property was low,
+taxes light and easily paid, a balance on hand in the treasury to
+commence the new year, and very little pauperism in the town. Yerbury
+officials utilized their inefficient population, and their county jail
+was not made a palace of luxury. The old-fashioned element in the place
+held crime as the result of sin instead of occult disease,--a thing to
+be punished, rather than petted. It had good railroad connections,
+plenty of water, with one navigable stream, and a variety of industries.
+Iron, shoes, hats, paper, and clothing were manufactured to a
+considerable extent, to say nothing of many smaller branches. Hope Mills
+was the largest, the focus of the town, and had the prestige of being
+handed down through three generations, though never as extensive as now.
+
+Toward the west there was a succession of pretty hills that lay in the
+broad sunshine, making you think somehow of Spanish slopes, covered with
+vineyards, olives, and luxuriant verdure. Over beyond, a wide,
+diversified country range, farms, woodland, hills and valleys, with a
+branch of the river winding through, called, rather unromantically,
+Little Creek.
+
+On these slopes, the new part, dwelt the aristocracy. Streets wound
+around in picturesque fashion to make easy grades, and many old
+forest-trees were preserved by that means, giving the place an air of
+years, rather than yesterday and improvement. There were two pretty
+parks,--one devoted to Fourth-of-July orations from time immemorial;
+there were churches of every denomination; a boarding and day school for
+young ladies, the academy, some excellent district schools; a hall with
+library and reading-room; a bank; rows of attractive shops and stores;
+and, coming down in the scale of refinement, beer-saloons and
+concert-halls, kept generally up to a certain point of morality. There
+were so many laboring-men, and they must have something by way of
+entertainment.
+
+It struck Jack with a curious wonder. These stolid faces and plodding
+steps were part of the human machines out of which wealth was being
+ground. They went to the beer-shops at night in their dirty clothes,
+smelling of grease and dye, drank beer, played a few games, and
+harangued each other, and went home maudlin or stupefied. Perhaps it was
+more comfortable than the slatternly wives and crying children. Did it
+need to be so? If you gave the workingman a helping hand, did he turn
+straightway into an unreasoning demagogue?
+
+_He_ was not likely to be tempted by such doings. His home had always
+been too clean and pleasant. He still kept up with the boys, and joined
+the lyceum club; but the intimate companionship of his life was gone.
+
+Fred did not come home for Christmas. College-life was
+delightful,--would be just perfect if dear old Jack were there. The
+glowing letters kept alive his own secret dissatisfaction. But how
+explain it to one who would be sure to say, "Get out of it all, Jack: no
+one has any right to keep you in such a distasteful round, and thwart
+your life-plans." To be sure, he had no life-plans.
+
+One raw, cold March day, Mr. Darcy went out to repair a roof that had
+leaked in the previous storm. He rarely minded wind or weather.
+
+"I declare," he said that evening, dropping into his capacious armchair,
+"I feel as if I should never get warmed through. I do believe we shall
+have a tremendous snowstorm to take this chill out of the air. Jack,
+read the paper aloud, won't you?"
+
+Jack complied. Local items, bits of State news, and the general progress
+of the country; the starvation of a nation at the antipodes, the
+discovery of a wonderful silver-mine, plans for new railroads,--how busy
+the world was! It stirred Jack's youthful blood.
+
+"I'd like to be a railroad-president," said Jack suddenly.
+
+His father stared, then laughed at the absurdity. "Why, you're only a
+boy, Jack," he replied.
+
+"I know it. But the boy who means to be a railroad-president must begin
+somewhere. Or if I could own a silver-mine," he went on, with the
+boundless audacity of youth.
+
+"Could you find use for the silver?" asked his father humorously.
+
+Jack flushed, and lapsed into dreams. Grandmother opposite was nodding
+in her chair, her knitting still in her fingers. Jack left his vision
+for a moment, to calculate if the old chest upstairs was not nearly full
+of stockings. His mother sat sewing some trifle, and just raised her
+eyes with that longing, beseeching glance mothers so often give to their
+sons.
+
+"If women only did not care so much for one," thought Jack, "or if there
+had been a great family of us. And still I can't see the wonderful
+difference between going to college, and going to seek your fortune.
+Does two or three hundred miles more matter when you are once away?"
+
+The snow came on through the night. There being nothing urgent on hand,
+Mr. Darcy remained within; but Jack buffeted the storm gallantly. It
+would be worse than this out in the new countries where he meant to go
+some time.
+
+The next day Mr. Darcy was out. There was a dull pain in his breast,
+going through to his back, and he coughed a little. It went on thus for
+forty-eight hours, when the pain became intense, and fever set in. Dr.
+Kendrick was summoned; and, though the case was severe, it had no
+alarming symptoms at first. Jack went to and fro with his merry whistle;
+speculative he might be, but he was not introspective or morbid: wife
+and mother watched at home.
+
+There came one of those sudden and inexplicable turns in the disease.
+Jack was stunned, incredulous. In his mother's eyes lay a look of
+helpless terror he was never to forget.
+
+"You'll care for them always, Jack; you'll never leave them," said his
+father imploringly, in one lucid interval.
+
+"Always," answered the young voice bravely.
+
+"Thank you, my son, my dear boy;" and there was a fervent clasp of the
+hand.
+
+A few days later Bernard Darcy lay coffined in the pretty parlor, while
+wife and mother were crushed with grief.
+
+"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes;" and Jack dropped the first handful of
+earth in his father's open grave. The two women clung to him,--he was
+their all. Here lay his duty as long as God pleased.
+
+It seemed for weeks after this as if Mrs. Darcy would follow her
+husband. She looked so white and wan, she was so feeble that some days
+she could not leave her bed. Grandmother rallied with that invincible
+determination not to be beaten down if her prop was wrenched away.
+
+Jack was now a few months past eighteen, stout, and growing tall
+rapidly. There was about him a sturdy persistence and the good common
+sense that lends an adaptiveness or pliability of disposition, so to
+speak, that is often mistaken for content. Since he must stay here for
+some years to come, he would devote himself to learning the business of
+manufacturing woollen cloth. It entertained him more than keeping books.
+For the sake of these two bereaved women, he would take an actual
+interest in the work he had to do.
+
+Looking back in after-years, he was glad he made the resolve, and stood
+by it manfully. It gave ballast to his character, shaped him to a
+definite purpose. A narrow life, to be sure; nay, more, a distasteful
+one: but he did his best, and waited, and that was all that could be
+asked of him.
+
+Early in June there was a great commotion at the mansion on Hope
+Terrace. Miss Agatha Lawrence was married to Hamilton Minor, one of the
+great firm of brokers in Wall Street, 'Morgan, Minor, & Co.' For weeks
+it had been the talk of the town. The trousseau came from Paris, and was
+marvellous. The presents were on exhibition, and created a vast amount
+of envy and admiration,--silver, jewels, pictures, crystal, china, and
+laces. And last of all a sumptuous wedding,--every delicacy in season
+and out of season, costly wines, pyramids of cake, and a lavish
+profusion of flowers. Nothing so grand had ever occurred in Yerbury.
+
+Fred and a stylish Miss Minor were to stand. He reached home just in
+time; and, as he was to be off again with the bridal party, he sent a
+note of regret to Jack.
+
+Jack had too much good sense to feel hurt, though he was disappointed. A
+few weeks later he took his mother and grandmother up to the mountains
+for change of air, and enjoyed the vacation hugely himself. So it
+happened he did not see Fred at all.
+
+The second year letters languished, indeed failed, I may as well admit.
+Jack was being rapidly inducted into the wisdom of the world, Fred into
+the wisdom of society. They would never meet on the old plane again. The
+mill-hand would be no companion for the son and heir of David Lawrence,
+Esq.
+
+It was not in Jack Darcy's nature to be bitter or cynical. He just
+accepted the fact. Somewhere he and Fred had outgrown each other, and
+the boyish interests, once such a bond of union. Fred would be an
+educated and cultivated gentleman.
+
+Why should he be left in the background? His ambition was suddenly
+roused again, and he more than half wished himself in college. He went
+back to his books; he joined a debating-society. There was no need of
+being a mere clod because he had to work. David Lawrence was a
+gentleman. And the next spring he took up a little botany and
+horticulture with his gardening. Old Mr. Rising down the street, who had
+been gardener to some great lord,--a peculiar, obstinate Englishman,
+with his head crammed full of odd bits of knowledge,--took a fancy to
+Jack. They discussed not only fruit and flowers, but trade in its
+various aspects, as Mr. Rising had relatives at Manchester who had
+soared to the ambitions of mills and factories.
+
+Time sped on, and they came to the second summer. Miss Gertrude Lawrence
+was a belle now, and the great house was constantly filled with guests.
+The Lawrence equipages were seen in every direction. Mrs. Minor was up
+frequently, in grand state. The lawn was gay with croquet-parties, the
+evenings were brilliant with lights and music: they had two elegant
+garden-parties, when the grounds were illuminated with colored lanterns,
+and the teas were festivals in themselves. Fred had brought home two
+college chums, and for the first fortnight was deeply engrossed. Then,
+too, the girls no longer nagged at him. He was developing into an
+elegant young man, with due regard for the proprieties.
+
+He did go to call on Jack one evening. It was a duty, a rather awkward
+and embarrassing one, and he took to himself great credit in the point
+of moral courage. He understood thoroughly now what Agatha had striven
+so sedulously to explain, the difference in social station. He was not
+likely in the future to make a blunder on that side, but it would not do
+to turn the cold shoulder to Jack all at once. "A boy's will's the
+wind's will," he repeated with much complacency, and it was but natural
+that it should veer in other directions. Jack was a good enough fellow,
+but no Sir Galahad or Sir any one now.
+
+He was a little shocked at Mrs. Darcy in her mourning dress and widow's
+cap. She was pale, and with the extreme delicacy so often pronounced
+characteristic of American women. Grandmother sat in state and dignity,
+rather resentful of what she termed in her secret heart Fred's neglect,
+but a thing she would not have confessed openly if she had been put to
+torture. And Jack?
+
+Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence studied him with a critical eye. A great,
+lumbering, inelegant fellow! Jack seemed to have grown out in every
+direction, without being finished up in any. He was taken somewhat at a
+disadvantage, too: somehow he fancied, if he had met Fred alone in a
+stray walk, there would have been less formality.
+
+They talked about college. Fred was doing well, for he was by nature a
+student. Society's arts and airs would never entirely uproot that love.
+He meant to distinguish himself, and have one of the prize essays. Jack
+was rather grave and quiet, hard to get on with, Fred thought; and he
+was relieved when the duty was ended, and he could go with a good grace.
+
+Jack lingered on the porch, clinching his fingers, and listening to the
+jaunty retreating footstep. There was something different in Fred's walk
+even, a buoyancy as if he could override any little difficulties that
+fate might have in store for him. Jack smiled grimly. Fortune had
+showered every good gift upon him. He would go proudly, successfully,
+through life. He would be praised and honored--and for what?
+
+For a moment Jack felt like wrestling with him, shoulder to shoulder, to
+distance him, to defeat him, to lower his complacent pride. His
+half-patronizing manner had stung keenly. Then the real nobility of his
+nature cropped out, and he laughed at his own sudden heat and passion.
+
+"It would be folly," he said softly to himself. "I could not distinguish
+myself in any line he will be likely to follow. He must work his way: I
+must work mine. He knows what he means to do; and there he has gone
+ahead of me, for I really do not know my own mind. No, there's no
+further basis for a friendship: the boy-love has had its day, and died.
+After all, isn't that the history of every thing?" and Jack looked up to
+the stars, still with a little wordless pain at his heart.
+
+He heard during the next week that Fred had gone West with one of his
+friends, who was nephew to a great railway magnate. It would be only a
+flying trip, to be sure, but here Jack was tempted to envy him. That
+boundless West, the land of his own dreams!
+
+Grandmother grew a trifle less energetic, still it could not be said
+that her health began to fail. Mrs. Darcy remained about the same. Every
+day Jack realized how much he was to the two women. To leave them would
+be absolute cruelty.
+
+At Christmas of this year Miss Gertrude Lawrence was married. The
+wedding was rather quieter, from the fact that it was winter, and the
+bride was to leave for Europe the next day. Irene was shooting up into a
+tall girl, and being educated at a fashionable and expensive
+boarding-school. Nothing happened to impair her friendship with Sylvie
+Barry, though the two girls were as dissimilar in many respects as Jack
+and Fred, but they both stood on the same social plane.
+
+Meanwhile matters at Yerbury prospered mightily. The town was quite
+bright at night with the glow from factory-windows, and people seemed
+always hurrying to and fro. New shops and stores were started, new
+streets were laid out, rows of houses built in town, and out on the edge
+pretty and ugly suburban villas. Property began to increase everywhere.
+
+Gertrude and her husband George Eastman came back to Yerbury in about
+five months. He had begun his career as clerk in a bank, and joined his
+brother afterward as an army-contractor. From thence they had branched
+into general speculating, and were both considered rich men. Mr. Minor
+owned a Fifth-avenue palace, and Mrs. Minor never came to Yerbury
+without her maid. Mrs. Eastman could not have the palace in town, so she
+decided to have a handsome summer residence at Yerbury, and spend her
+winters at different hotels. Mr. Eastman thought he saw a grand opening
+just in this pretty spot. Property was ridiculously low. Here were farms
+and farms that might as well be cut up into building-lots, and turned
+into cities. Here was the river-front, here were railroads: why not have
+twice or thrice as many shops? why not call in the people from far and
+wide, and make Yerbury a place of note? Time had been when our fathers
+were content to dream and doze, but now it behooved everybody to be up
+and stirring. In the new race the laggards would fall far behind.
+
+Mr. Eastman set the example by purchasing one large tract, and laying
+out streets. Then uprose houses as if by magic. Modern improvements,
+water, gas, bath, butler's pantries, and dumb-waiters; and the houses
+offered so cheaply that the solid, slow-going, honest business-men
+wondered how it could be done. The places had a wonderfully seductive
+look, and were sought after eagerly.
+
+There was a peculiar interest in all this to Jack. When one day somebody
+said,--
+
+"Downer's property south of the bridge has gone for thirty thousand
+dollars. Five years ago he'd been glad to have taken ten for it. Crater
+and Harmon are going to build a big factory,"--Jack's heart went up with
+a bound.
+
+He still wanted to get away from Yerbury. He began to feel that he had
+made a mistake with his life, and was anxious to rectify it if possible.
+He did not see how he could do it here. He had gone into the groove, and
+it was hard getting out. But if some one came along, and offered them a
+fortune!
+
+The chance drew near. A new street was prospected through Miss Barry's
+grounds, through the Lanier place farther back, and the southern end
+would touch the Darcy place, giving it some new fronts and available
+lots, and placing the house on the corner. There would be sufficient
+ground for the width of the street. A petition was forthwith circulated.
+
+Alas that there could be people so blind to their own interests and the
+general welfare of the community! Miss Barry stoutly resisted. She even
+inspired some of her neighbors to that extent of opposition that they
+would not sell at any price. Destroy the beauty of Larch Avenue, that
+had been "Lovers' Walk" in the old days, and held so many tender
+reminiscences!
+
+"When I am gone I don't care what is done with the place," said Miss
+Barry. "It will have but little sentiment for the next generation. A
+change to me now would be like tearing up an old tree by the roots. I
+could not endure it. They may have their elegant new houses; but give me
+my large airy rooms and my old-time flowers, my nectarines and apricots.
+Let me live my few years in peace and quiet."
+
+"There is certainly enough to improve," returned Grandmother Darcy.
+"There are miles and miles that people are glad to sell. Let them take
+that. Let them build up the vacant lots. And where are all the people
+coming from to fill them?"
+
+"The factories and mills will bring in the people," said Jack sturdily.
+
+"There is plenty of room elsewhere," returned Miss Barry with some
+asperity. "There certainly is no need of turning people out of homes
+they like, and have made comfortable."
+
+"I suppose you cannot look at it in a business light," said Jack. "Women
+rarely do"--
+
+"There have been just such whirlwinds before, Mr. Darcy," said the
+shrewd little old lady. "I have lived through two of them myself. And it
+seems to me it is an epidemic of running in debt, rather than
+prosperity. If everything were paid for; but you see here are
+improvement-bonds, and our town runs in debt: here is everybody raising
+money on mortgages. How is it to be paid? Do wages and salaries double?
+History proves that it is a bad thing for a state when its rich men grow
+richer, and its poor poorer."
+
+"I am sure they need not," said Jack valiantly. "There is a higher scale
+of wages paid than ever before."
+
+"And no account made of thrift or economy. Enticements at every corner;
+women flaunting silks and laces as everyday gear, with no sacredness;
+old-fashioned neatness despised, industry ridiculed; men lounging in
+beer-shops; girls flirting on the public streets, having no duties
+beyond a day's work in a mill. What will the homes and the wives of the
+next generation be like?"
+
+"But that was all so irrelevant," said Jack after she had gone. "Women
+mix up everything. Now, here: you are offered a big price for this
+property. You two could live at ease all the rest of your life, and I"--
+
+"You would go away," said his mother sorrowfully.
+
+"Well, perhaps not," trying to make the tone indifferent.
+
+"Jack," began his grandmother, sitting very erect, and glancing straight
+before her into vacancy, "I am an old woman now; and, like Miss Barry, I
+could not take a change comfortably. No other place will ever be home to
+your mother or me. There is some money,--enough, I think, to take care
+of us both. So, if you cannot be content, if you must have the restless
+roving of youth out before your blood can cool, go and try the world. It
+is pretty much alike all over,--some one going up while another goes
+down; chances here, and chances there. As for the few years left me"--
+And there was a slight tremble in her voice.
+
+"Don't fret. I'm not going away," said Jack crossly, huskily, too much
+hurt to study his tone. "If I can't always see things as you do"--
+
+There were tears in his mother's eyes. Jack rose suddenly, thrust his
+hands in his pockets, and walked out into the twilight. There was
+nothing to be done with so obstinate a problem as his life. He would
+learn the business thoroughly, getting on as fast as possible, and some
+time make a strike out for himself, become a manufacturer in turn. The
+thing was settled now. Maybe some one would want him for mayor or
+congressman. There was a time when David Lawrence, Esq., had been a
+comparatively poor man; and though Jack felt that he would hardly turn
+his hand over to have a million of dollars put in it for the mere
+money's worth, if he could not discover a silver-mine, or build a
+railroad over the Rocky Mountains, he might become a rich man. Wealth
+was a mighty lever, after all. He shut his lips grimly, and pushed his
+hat down over his eyes. In the early summer dusk, fragrant with rose and
+violet, he went over the old battle-ground. Did some enemy sow it
+continually with dragon's teeth? To stay here eight or ten years,
+mayhap, to make all the money he could. Not one year of her life did he
+mean to grudge grandmother.
+
+It was quite late when he came in, but his mother was watching for him.
+She put her arms softly about his neck, and kissed him.
+
+"Have a little patience, dear," she said, in tender, motherly tones; but
+he knew her sympathy was with him.
+
+"Yes, I mean to. I don't care as much as I did an hour ago. I'm going to
+set myself steadily to business. You'll hear no more moans or groans out
+of me, mother."
+
+"Jack--you know I would go to the end of the world with you."
+
+"I believe you would--yes, I do. There, good-night!" for she was crying.
+
+"This is the way we rule circumstances," said Jack dryly, sitting down
+in his own room, and taking up Carlyle. "What an amount of humbug is
+talked in this world,--yes, and written too!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+THERE was an influx of new blood in Yerbury, and it brought in fresh
+ideas. A new railroad touched it at one edge, and real-estate dealers
+left off fighting about Larch Avenue. The ancient stages were laid aside
+for the more modern horse-cars: there was bustle and rivalry on every
+hand. George Eastman began to be quoted, and his advice asked generally.
+Mrs. Eastman held her head loftily. Then there came on the arena of
+action a certain Horace Eastman, cousin to George, who had been abroad
+as agent for a large firm, and who slipped into the place of general
+manager of Hope Mills.
+
+Plainly, F. De Woolfe Lawrence was not preparing to follow in his
+father's steps. He had graduated with honors, and taken a prize essay,
+and was now a fully-fledged modern young man. He was fond of discoursing
+on abstruse subjects, he dabbled a little into art, wrote some mystical
+poems, tied a cravat beyond criticism, and wore faultless gloves and
+boots. His mother and Mrs. Eastman were extremely proud of him. His
+father wondered a little what the young man's future would be.
+
+"I have not decided upon a profession," he said, with a just perceptible
+but extremely stylish drawl. "The next thing is going abroad. I want at
+least two years of travel, and I should not wonder if I settled myself
+at some German or Parisian university. We, as a nation, are so sadly
+deficient in culture. Our country is crude, as I suppose all young
+countries must be."
+
+David Lawrence nodded slowly, and asked,--
+
+"When did you think of going?"
+
+"I may as well go at once, and have it over," returned the young man,
+with the princely indifference he affected.
+
+His father did not dissent. As well in Europe as here, or anywhere.
+
+As for Jack, he was quite as much out of his reach as if the ocean
+already rolled between. They used to pass each other quietly, nodding if
+they came face to face, but often evading any kind of recognition. Was
+the old regard dead?
+
+Fred smiled rather pityingly on the boy who had been so blinded in his
+first love.
+
+"I used to think him such a hero, because he once thrashed a boy in my
+behalf," mused the young man. "And how I used to fly at the girls, who
+were always looking at the feet of clay my idol possessed! How I _did_
+coax him to go to college!" and Fred gave a little rippling laugh. "I
+must admit that he has good common sense,--he has found his place, and
+keeps it. There could be nothing between us now, of course. My lines lie
+in such different ways."
+
+No moan for a lost ideal under all that self-complacency.
+
+Jack Darcy took the defection in good part. He did see the utter
+incongruity of keeping up even the semblance of the old dream. But,
+where Fred had made dozens of new friends, Jack had admitted no one to
+his vacant shrine. He liked, even now, to recall those old hours, so
+bright and gay with childish whims and frolics. And he did envy Fred,
+just a little, that ramble over Europe. Would it be a ramble? It was
+Jack's turn to smile. Would it not be bits and pictures seen through
+coach-windows, rather than getting close to Nature's heart? No, that
+would not suit _him_.
+
+And so glided by two more years. De Woolfe Lawrence--he had dropped the
+initial now--returned home in a still higher state of cultivation, and
+quite as undecided as to his future career. A life of leisure and
+_belles-lettres_ looked the most tempting to him. He had read up a
+little in medicine, but the practice would not please his fastidious
+inclinations. Law had its objections. In fact, Mr. Lawrence had dropped
+into that dilettante state into which extreme cultivation, without
+genius or ambition, is apt to drift its possessor. He was nearing
+twenty-four now,--handsome, aristocratic, the pride of his family, and
+the distraction of young women in general. Invitations were showered
+upon him, and the delicate flattery society loves to use, ministered to
+his vanity.
+
+Meanwhile what of Jack?
+
+He had improved considerably through these years. The rough angularity
+of twenty had softened. Tall, but robust and compact, no stooping
+shoulders or slouching gait. The chestnut hair was no longer faded, but
+still cropped close; and the eyes were so deep that they seemed to have
+a blue-black tint, large, slow-moving, with that unutterable wistfulness
+which makes one sad. The face was good, strong, and earnest; and, if his
+manners were not those of a gentleman of leisure, they bore the impress
+of something quite as noble, honor, tenderness, and sincerity. The old
+restlessness had dropped out. Love, being larger than duty, hinted now
+at no sacrifice. Grandmother Darcy, now grown quite feeble, leaned on
+this strong arm, always outstretched, forgetting there had ever been any
+wild dreams of youth.
+
+And, though Yerbury had changed so much, they and the old street
+remained unchanged. Mrs. Darcy was a little thinner and older, the light
+hair just touched with silver. The garden was the same: wherever his
+father's favorite flowers had died out, Jack had replaced them. Only the
+honeysuckle was like great twisted ropes, and the syringas and lilacs
+were trees instead of bushes.
+
+Old neighbors had gone, and new ones come, but they were of the quiet,
+steady kind. Miss Barry seemed smaller and frailer, but she was as
+active as ever in her refined way. Sylvie no longer came to the gate for
+milk: indeed, the wide-eyed Alderney had long been given up, and Sylvie
+was a young woman. Irene Lawrence had been sent to a fashionable
+boarding-school; but Sylvie had been educated at home, under her aunt's
+eye, by a French governess who had proved something more than a mere
+teacher. The coming of Madame Trépier served to cement more closely the
+intimacy with the Darcy family. Indeed, Jack took a queer, half-shy
+liking for madame, and began to study French. He had a great fondness
+for music, and a fine, rich tenor-voice: so he and Sylvie sang duets
+together, and often walked in the twilight with madame. Indeed, Miss
+Barry would have kept her for friend and companion all the rest of her
+life; but there came a very persistent wooer, and madame succumbed a
+second time to the destiny of women.
+
+Sylvie Barry was piquant rather than pretty: a soft peachy skin neither
+dark nor fair, with a creamy tint; deep lustrous hazel eyes, that seemed
+to change with her moods; hair that had barely shaken off the golden
+tint, and clustered in rings about the low broad forehead; a passable
+nose of no particular design, but a really beautiful mouth and chin, the
+latter dimpled, the former with a short curved upper lip, displaying the
+pearly teeth at the faintest smile; barely medium height, with a figure
+that was slim yet not thin, rounded, graceful, pliant, with some of the
+swift dazzling motions of a bird.
+
+While Jack and Fred had drifted so apart, Sylvie and Irene still kept up
+a curious friendship. On Sylvie's part there was no election: indeed,
+Irene in her imperious fashion took Sylvie up as the mood seized her.
+Mrs. Lawrence, now quite an invalid, was fond of Sylvie's bright face
+and gay inspiriting voice. In Irene's absence she was often sending for
+her. "Play me a little song before you go," she would say; or, "Read a
+chapter in my book for me, will you not? You always make people seem so
+real." Consequently Sylvie had never left off going to the great house.
+Mrs. Eastman would fain have patronized her, but in her spirited way she
+shook off the faintest attempt. But Irene flew to her, and insisted upon
+a croquet-party or a drive, or a musical soirée.
+
+"I can't do without you, you obstinate little thing," she would exclaim.
+"I don't know why I take so much trouble about you; for I don't believe
+you like me at all, but just tolerate me for the sake of old times.
+There are twenty girls in Yerbury who would go wild with delight if I
+were to ask them."
+
+"Why do you not, then?" inquired Sylvie with a tantalizing light in her
+eyes.
+
+"Because I don't choose to, Miss Impertinence! Don't be cross now, and
+torment me to death with your perverse ways."
+
+"You surely need not be tormented."
+
+"Sylvie, you are exasperating."
+
+"Why do you ask me, then, or tease me to do any of these things? I would
+rather stay at home to-day, and paint."
+
+"But I shall not give you up. I'll stay here, and talk so that your wits
+will wander!"
+
+And so at last Sylvie would consent to her friend's demands.
+
+One evening she came over to discuss a costume for a fancy-dress
+garden-party. Mrs. Eastman had brought some fashion-plates up from New
+York, but they did not altogether suit her fancy: so the carriage was
+ordered, and in a few moments it rolled to Sylvie's door.
+
+Sylvie and Jack were at the piano. There was a soft, drizzling,
+summer-night rain, that made all the air fragrant without any noisy
+patter. It was just the evening for an old Latin hymn; and Sylvie was
+playing the strong, rich chords that had in them mysterious hints of
+heavenly joy, coming up through waves of passionate suffering. Jack's
+voice seemed toned to these sympathetic vibrations, and the grand old
+words rolled out simply, with none of the vicious taste of the more
+modern fashionable school. So engrossed were they, that they did not
+hear the carriage stop; but Sylvie caught her aunt's voice.
+
+They had reached the end of a verse. "Let me see what auntie wants,"
+said Sylvie, running into the next room; and then it was, "Oh, Irene!
+oh, Sylvie!"
+
+"Singing to yourself in the twilight!" laughed Irene. "How romantic! I'm
+going to interrupt you now, and put you in better business. I am just
+loaded down with the excellent fripperies of this world, and unable to
+make a choice. And the grand occasion is Mrs. Avery Langton's
+garden-party. Now, be good-natured, and help me decide."
+
+Uttering this in a rapid breath, she had walked through the sitting-room
+to the parlor, and tumbled her parcel down on the great antique sofa,
+whose edges everywhere were studded with brass nails. And there stood
+Jack, thinking, if he had been quicker, he could have stepped out of the
+window into Miss Sylvie's pretty flower-bed, now purple with odorous
+heliotrope. But, as he had not, there was nothing to do but to stand his
+ground manfully.
+
+He had often seen Irene Lawrence in the carriage and on horseback; but
+as she stepped into the room now, and stood there rather surprised, she
+might have been a daughter of Juno. Tall, slender, arrowy straight, but
+lithe and faultlessly rounded, her fleecy white shawl like a gossamer
+web falling off her shoulders, her haughty carriage, her wealth of
+purple-black hair coiled about her shapely head, a hundred times
+handsomer than any artifice of dressing, her brilliant complexion, her
+large eyes with their long sweeping lashes that veiled their depth, but
+seemed to add a certain imperiousness, her coral-red lips that shaped
+differently with every breath, her straight nose, with the nostrils thin
+as a bit of shell, and the softly rounded chin, made her a picture that
+Jack Darcy never forgot.
+
+"Oh!" in a tone of surprise, "I thought you were alone: pardon me."
+
+Sylvie was bringing in another lamp, and placed it on the great clawfoot
+centre-table. Then it occurred to her that Irene might not know Jack.
+She should recognize him here socially, anyhow.
+
+"My friend Miss Lawrence," she said with a world of dignity, "Mr.
+Darcy."
+
+Jack bowed, in no wise abashed by this proud and handsome Miss Lawrence,
+though as a child she had snubbed him many a time. And she glanced him
+over with a sudden interest. It was a manly face and a manly figure; and
+she wondered from what remote corner of the earth Sylvie Barry had
+summoned this fair, stout giant, who made her think of the Norse gods of
+her childish romances. She always liked strength: Sylvie was for
+tenderness, pathos, and beauty.
+
+"Good-evening," inclining her proud head. "Did I interrupt? You were
+singing?"
+
+"That is finished," returned Sylvie, with her peculiar manner, as if,
+being hostess here, she should have proper respect paid to her position;
+and each guest should be as deferent to the other as if she were a
+little queen, and this her court.
+
+She picked up a stray piece of music that had fallen to the floor,
+seated Irene, and half turned to Jack. Any other woman might have been
+awkward.
+
+"I will leave you two ladies to yourselves," began Jack; but Irene
+interrupted,--
+
+"No, Mr. Darcy: I shall think I have driven you away;" with a beguiling
+smile. "If you understand music, you may have a taste in the fine arts
+of dress as well. At all events, look over these elegant women in their
+party-gowns, and tell me which is fairest and rarest."
+
+The honesty of the glance, although it was coquettish, told Jack that
+Miss Irene did not remember him. For, of all the haughty Lawrence women,
+she had the name of being the haughtiest. She gathered up her skirts in
+other people's houses when the plebeian element came too near. Now she
+waved him to a chair, and gently sank into another, her trailing robe of
+thin filmy black with golden flecks falling about her like clouds in a
+gusty sky.
+
+He took the seat indicated. Some strange feeling moved him, an
+enchantment that he had never before experienced. The very air about her
+was filled with a subtle, indescribable perfume that he should always
+associate with a tall, dark-eyed woman,--a glimpse of the Orient and its
+sweetness, he fancied.
+
+Sylvie took her place, and began to tumble over the colored plates.
+
+"I'm so tired of those Watteau things!" began Miss Lawrence
+disdainfully. "They all savor of bread-and-butter girls,--a shepherdess
+with her crook,--bah! And I've been Marie Stuart so many times. If it
+were a masquerade; but garden-parties are beginning to prove bores,
+after all. There is nothing new about them, only to out-shine every
+other woman. A high ambition, is it not, Mr. Darcy?"
+
+"A temptation perhaps."
+
+The tone had in it a bit of delicate homage. Irene understood. She knew
+at once that this man was a little dazed by her beauty, just as many
+other men had been. Puny, delicate, namby-pamby men she despised, and
+always gave them a cut with her sharp tongue. Where had Sylvie picked up
+this Saul among his peers?
+
+They were all interested in the pictures, and soon fell to making merry
+comments on them. Sylvie had a quick eye and a bright wit, and something
+made Jack Darcy brilliant. They selected bits of fine taste here, they
+made an elegant costume of no particular style, and Irene was struck
+with what she knew would be its becomingness.
+
+"Mr. Darcy, are you an artist?" She remembered just then what an odd way
+the Barrys had of picking up people with some gift or grace.
+
+"No," and Jack flushed boyishly.
+
+"Then you must have a houseful of sisters."
+
+"No, I never had a sister."
+
+"When all things else fail with you, you can set up opposition to Worth.
+I shall come to you for designs. Now, this will be a peculiar source of
+gratification to me, because no one can possibly have the same
+combination. And you never can depend upon a modiste. Mr. Darcy, what
+makes women so faithless to one another?"
+
+"Are they?" he asked with a man's simplicity.
+
+She laughed gayly, and met Jack's fun-loving, shady blue eyes. How
+handsome they were!
+
+Miss Barry entered the room, and joined in the pleasant chat: then a
+rumble of carriage-wheels was heard.
+
+"It has stopped raining," said Sylvie, going to the window. "A few soft,
+melancholy stars have come out."
+
+"You have been very obliging, Sylvie," said Miss Lawrence. "Miss Barry,
+I shall send the carriage over to-morrow. Good-night."
+
+Jack Darcy handed her out, pushing aside a trailing rose that it might
+not catch her shawl. Then she half turned, and said "Good-night" in a
+softer tone.
+
+Sylvie was standing on the porch. "It has been as good as a play, Jack,"
+she said with her gay-humored laugh. "I don't believe she ever
+thought"--
+
+"That I worked in her father's mill!" and Jack laughed; but it was a
+rather pained, jarring sound.
+
+"Jack--why do you? You are a puzzle to me!" and Sylvie's voice sharpened
+unconsciously. "You do not like it. Why did you not go on at the
+academy, or"--
+
+"Raise myself in the social scale? That's what you mean, Sylvie;
+although we pass just as pleasant hours as if I were a prince, and you
+the lady of high degree. Well, we have gone over the ground a good many
+times, and it is always the same thing. I have no fancy for a
+profession; I have no genius for art, though Miss Lawrence suggests that
+I might become a man-milliner--is that what you call it? You know, I am
+staying here because mother and grandmother will not go anywhere else.
+And I dare say I make as much money as young Dr. Romer or Ned Remington.
+And somehow, now that I'm in it, I go on with a stubborn, plucky
+feeling. Some day I'll be a great manufacturer."
+
+This time his laugh was cheerful and ringing.
+
+"You see, Sylvie, your good-nature places you on the debatable ground.
+You and your aunt could be hand-in-glove with all these great people,
+and yet you open your generous heart to take in everybody."
+
+"No, not everybody, Jack. And what a little coward I am just this
+minute! No, it is not that either. Jack, you _do_ know that I should
+never be a bit ashamed of you before any one. I feel vexed when I think
+that you could take the high places, and yet you let people put you
+down,--people not half as worthy or half as good as you. There's Horace
+Eastman. He came here a comparatively poor man; and now he owns half
+Yerbury, and talks of the mill-hands as if they were--well, a flock of
+sheep."
+
+"An apt comparison, Sylvie. To my mind, they are shorn pretty close to
+make broadcloth for their masters."
+
+"And there is Fred--have you seen him since his return?"
+
+"Not to speak to him, of course." And then Jack flushed deeply, with a
+little hurt feeling.
+
+"And what friends you were! Is it the way of the world? Then it is a
+mean, hateful world!"
+
+"Sylvie, you are talking wildly. Don't you see there is no point of
+union in our lives? Now, I do not feel so badly over an outgrown
+friendship. When I was a little boy, I remember having a wonderful fancy
+for Tom Deane. We traded jack-knives; we told each other of the best
+nut-trees; we hunted squirrels; we coasted together; and, I dare say, he
+was as much of a hero in my childish eyes as I used to be in Fred's. But
+think of any friendship between us now! There isn't a greater loafer in
+all Yerbury than Tom Deane. Why, we have not a feeling in common."
+
+"Still I think it is rather different," and a shade of annoyance passed
+over her face. If Jack only would not call up these people below him, if
+he would not identify himself so strongly with that common brotherhood!
+He had so many nice tastes, such a clean, pure, honest soul. And, young
+as Sylvie was, she knew this was not always the result of culture or
+wealth or ambition.
+
+Jack guessed what was passing in her mind. From his father he had
+inherited a kind of womanish intuition. A pleasant-tempered man Bernard
+Darcy had always been called, but it was that delicate tact, the
+intuitive knowledge of what would be pleasant to others.
+
+"What else can I do here, Sylvie?" Jack cried with sudden heat. "If the
+chance ever comes, I shall be fitted for a good business man. You may
+think there is no worthy ambition in that, but wait. Do not judge me too
+hastily."
+
+"I am impatient at times, I know; but it is because I see your
+capabilities, and I can't bear to think of your going through the world
+unappreciated."
+
+"Do not worry about that. Good-night!" rather abruptly. "Miss Barry, I
+have forgotten myself. Pleasant dreams!"
+
+"And we did not have our old hymn, after all," said Sylvie regretfully.
+
+Jack took the short cut across the garden. There was a dim light in the
+sitting-room; and his mother lay in the hammock on the latticed porch,
+her favorite evening resort. She came in now, and Jack bolted the doors.
+Then, with a good-night kiss, he went to his room, and in ten minutes
+was asleep. Sylvie, on the other hand, girl-like, tossed and tumbled.
+Why was the world so queer and awry and obstinate? After all, you could
+do so little with it. Your plans came to nought so easily. Lizzie Wise,
+in her Sunday-school class, preferred going in the mill, and buying
+herself cheap finery, because the other girls did it. And so all
+through. You tried to train some one, and he or she followed the _ignis
+fatuus_ more readily than any high, ennobling truth. It was hard lifting
+people out of their old grooves.
+
+How bright and entertaining Jack had been this evening! Of course Irene
+had not remembered him. Would she be vexed, Sylvie wondered,--she who
+held herself up so high, and believed in a separate world as it were?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+THE garden-party was a success, and Miss Lawrence the acknowledged belle
+of the evening. No one else could have carried off the peculiar style of
+dress. She knew that she was radiant; and triumphs were a necessary
+sweet incense, that she always kept alive on her shrine. There was no
+need of making a hurried election: indeed, her chief aim now was
+pleasure and conquest.
+
+They were sitting over their dainty lunch, Mrs. Eastman having dropped
+in; and, after the party had been pretty thoroughly discussed, a little
+lull ensued. Fred toyed with some luscious cherries, in his usual
+indolent manner. Nothing in this world was worth a hurry or a worry,
+according to this young man's creed. He had dawdled through the party,
+waltzing with a languid grace that most girls considered the essence of
+high-breeding. It was all one to him. His "set" affected to think life
+something of a bore. Intense emotion of any kind was vulgar.
+
+"By the by, Rene," said Mrs. Eastman, "do you suppose Sylvie Barry is
+engaged to that Darcy fellow? It was odd that she should go off on a
+picnic with him, instead of the party. She has the queerest, mixed-up
+tastes."
+
+"What Darcy fellow?" asked Irene in surprise.
+
+"Sylvie Barry! Jack Darcy!" exclaimed Fred, in as much amazement as his
+superfine breeding would allow.
+
+Mrs. Eastman gave a mellifluous laugh.
+
+"Don't you remember? but you were such a child! Fred does. The Damon to
+his Pythias."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+A vivid scarlet ran up to the edge of Irene's white brow. So that was
+Jack Darcy. What a blind fool she had been, _not_ to think! She had
+laughed and chatted with him, smiled on him, worn the costume of his
+designing,--a common workingman! For a moment she could have torn her
+hair, or beaten her slender white hands against the table. What had
+possessed her?
+
+"I do recall some green and salad days," rejoined Fred with a laugh.
+
+"How Agatha and I used to badger you! We were little fools to think such
+a thing ever went on when one came to years of discretion. Only I
+believe we were afraid the elder and idiotic Darcy might foist his son
+on some college. I must say Yerbury has become quite endurable now that
+party lines have been set up;" and Mrs. Eastman crumbed her cake,
+watching her diamond sparkle.
+
+"How do you know Sylvie went on a picnic?" asked Rene, with an angry
+glitter in her eyes.
+
+"Didn't the dear confess? Rene, you do not keep your penitent in very
+good order."
+
+Mrs. Eastman had a faculty of putting something extremely irritating in
+her voice. It was honey smooth, and yet it rasped.
+
+"Really," answered Irene indifferently, "I do not see that Miss Barry's
+selection of friends need affect me much, so long as she keeps the
+distasteful ones out of my way. I may wonder at her choice of pleasures,
+but I suppose she suits herself."
+
+"My nursery-girl belongs to the mission-school. It was very good of
+Lissette to let her off for a whole day, I thought. I left her to settle
+it. What Sylvie sees in such people, I cannot imagine. I own I was a
+trifle surprised when I found this remarkable Mr. Darcy was our old
+_bête noir_, Jack. Is he still in the mill, I wonder?"
+
+"Apply to papa," laughed Irene.
+
+"I don't believe papa could tell you the names of five workmen. As if he
+troubled his head about that!"
+
+"Sylvie is a nice little thing," remarked Fred patronizingly.
+
+"I have no patience with her!" declared Mrs. Eastman. "As if it was not
+necessary to have a line drawn somewhere! These people are all well
+enough in their way: they are a necessary factor,"--picking the words
+slowly to give them weight,--"and society establishes schools and homes
+for them, trains teachers, provides employment: what more do they want?
+A holiday now and then, of course; but why not go off by themselves as a
+class, as the French do? This maudlin, morbid sympathy we Americans
+give, spoils them. There is no keeping a servant in her place here.
+Before you know it she studies and graduates at some school, teaches for
+a while, goes abroad, and paints a picture, likely as not."
+
+"Do not excite yourself, Gerty," and Fred pulled the ends of his silky
+moustache.
+
+"Well, it does annoy me to see a young girl like Sylvie Barry with no
+better sense. Some day we shall have all these people rising up against
+us, as they did in the French Revolution. I hate socialism and all that;
+and I took good care to say to Mrs. Langton that Miss Barry had been
+casting in her lot that day with a parcel of charity-children, and would
+no doubt be too tired to enjoy the exquisite pleasure of her fête."
+
+"I do not think Sylvie cares a penny!" said Irene with a touch of scorn,
+anxious to return her sister's little stab. "I suppose she comforts
+herself with the remembrance of her old blue blood, while Mr. Langton
+made his fortune as an army-contractor."
+
+"The Wylies were a very good family, Irene."
+
+"If you are through eating, I will have a cigar," said the young man,
+sauntering over to the bay-window.
+
+What was there in this simple announcement of Sylvie having gone on a
+charity-school picnic with Jack Darcy that should so rouse the
+art-cultured pulses of Fred Lawrence? He had always liked Sylvie: her
+freshness and piquancy stirred him like a whiff of mountain air,--a sure
+sign that all healthy tone had not been cultivated out of him. It would
+be very foolish for Sylvie to commit a _mésalliance_ with this young
+man, who was no doubt good enough in his way,--a rather rough, awkward,
+clownish fellow, with a coarsely generous heart. Sylvie so delicate and
+refined, with her pretty ways, her genius,--yes, she really did have a
+genius! In Paris or Rome she might make herself quite a name. He must
+see a little more of her: he must--well, did he want to marry any one?
+
+Irene and Gertrude retired to the room of the former, and discussed
+Newport and Saratoga.
+
+"I do hope we shall have a cottage at Newport another summer," said Mrs.
+Eastman.
+
+"It gives you tone, of course," was Irene's response; "but honest, now,
+Gerty, don't you think it a little poky? I do not want to go anywhere
+for a whole summer: I like the fun of all. Agatha is to spend a month at
+Long Branch, and I am going down just for a little dazzle and to give my
+gowns an airing."
+
+Their siesta was passed in this kind of small talk. Late in the
+afternoon she drove Mrs. Eastman home, and then went for Sylvie in her
+pretty pony-phaeton. As Sylvie was about nothing more important than a
+pale-blue zephyr "fascinator," she accepted the invitation.
+
+What a delicious drive it was! A dappled under-roof of cloud with the
+sun just behind it, a golden-gray haze filming the air, and fragrant
+breezes suggestive of roses and honeysuckle. All the way was starred
+with daisies. Sylvie drew in long breaths of delight, for she never
+wearied of nature.
+
+They turned homeward early. The bells were ringing for six, and the
+mills and factories began to empty out their swarm of human beings.
+
+"Why do you go through here?" asked Sylvie in surprise. "I thought you
+hated all this."
+
+"So I do," briefly.
+
+She let the pony walk now. These shrill sounds jarred on the summer air.
+Groups of girls in procession in faded gear or tawdry finery; brawny men
+with an old-country, heavy cast of feature, in blue flannel, with arms
+bared to the elbow, and throats exposed; pale stripling youths of the
+American type, boys with the rough fun not yet knocked out of them by
+hard work or the harder blows of fate,--a motley crowd indeed.
+
+It thinned a little just here. Two or three men came along
+leisurely,--one tall and compact, with a slow, firm step, the face
+grave, the eyes glancing over beyond the hills. Irene Lawrence shut her
+lips with a touch of displeasure. Was she to miss the satisfaction that
+had been brooding in her mind for the last hour, for the accomplishment
+of which she had driven through this dusty, ill-smelling street?
+
+The pedestrian raised his head. A sudden warm, smiling glow overspread
+the face, no longer grave, but brightening like an April sky. The
+outlook of the eyes was so frank and clear; the half-smile playing about
+the parted lips had the honesty of a child. He touched his hat, and
+bowed with an almost stately deference.
+
+Sylvie nodded and smiled, leaning forward a bit. What sent the glad
+light so quickly out of his countenance? The girl glanced at Irene.
+
+Miss Lawrence had stared coolly, haughtily, decisively. This man might
+look at her hundreds of times in the days to come, but he would never
+again expect a social recognition from her. And, oh, perfection of
+cruelty! Sylvie, his fellow-sinner in these social laws, had witnessed
+his pain and discomfiture.
+
+She turned with her face at white heat, one of those inward flashes of
+indignation that transcend any scarlet blaze of anger. Her eyes glowed
+with a fiery ray, and the curves of mouth and chin seemed as if frozen.
+
+"It was a deliberate insult, Irene! How dared you"--
+
+"How dared I pass one of my father's workmen? Well, Miss Barry, I happen
+not to be hand-in-glove with them. I can relegate them to their proper
+place when an ill-judged vanity brings them unduly forward."
+
+"You met him at _my_ house: he is _my_ friend, and the friend of my
+aunt. His birth is as good as yours, or mine."
+
+"Oh, I dare say!" with a satirical laugh. "Are you really going to marry
+him, Sylvie? Have you the courage to throw yourself quite away?"
+
+"Stop!" and she caught at the reins. The next moment she was on the
+sidewalk. "Good-evening," she exclaimed with the dignity of a queen.
+
+"The little spitfire!" laughed Miss Lawrence.
+
+Sylvie's displeasure mattered very little to her. A few days later she
+was on her way to Long Branch, and the episode was soon danced out of
+mind.
+
+As for Sylvie Barry, she made up her mind never to go to Hope Terrace
+again. The friendship was not of her seeking, and now it should end.
+Friendship, indeed! It disgraced the word to use it in connection with
+Irene Lawrence.
+
+That very evening she went around to the Darcys. Neither she nor Jack
+mentioned the rencontre, but there was an indescribable something in her
+manner that told Jack the insult had been as much to her as to him.
+
+Hardly a fortnight later the Lawrence carriage stood at the gate of the
+pretty court-yard, and the liveried driver brought a note to the door.
+
+          DEAR SYLVIE,--[in a tremulous, uncertain hand] I
+          am wretched and lonely. Fred and Irene are away,
+          and Mr. Lawrence has gone West on business. Will
+          you not, out of the generosity of your heart, come
+          and cheer me up a bit? I was in bed all day
+          yesterday with a frightful headache, and can just
+          crawl to-day. Do not disappoint me. I have set my
+          heart on hearing you read, and have some nice new
+          books.
+
+                            Ever your obliged friend, A. L.
+
+"You must go," was her aunt's comment in a sympathizing tone. "I have
+promised all the afternoon to the School Club, you know, and you would
+only be home alone. Poor Mrs. Lawrence! What an invalid she has become!
+And think of me,"--with a cheery laugh,--"able to get about anywhere!"
+
+So Sylvie went up to Hope Terrace in the luxurious carriage she thought
+she had tabooed forever.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence did look very poorly. She kept to her room a great deal
+nowadays; or rather there were two of them,--one off the bedchamber,
+with a pretty oriel window, and exquisitely fitted up with every luxury
+wealth and taste could devise.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence had already lost her interest in life. Her two daughters
+were well married. Irene would be, of course; but marriages were an old
+story for her. She had loved to shine at watering-places, but the gayety
+no longer lured her. She had dazzled in diamonds, silks, and velvets,
+been admired on the right hand and on the left, until it was an old,
+trite story. Servants managed her house admirably. Mr. Lawrence never
+wearied her with any business details. Her clothes were ordered, and
+made, and hung in the closets. The carriage was always at hand. Not a
+want of any kind, hardly a desire, that could not be instantly
+satisfied. She had sunk into a kind of graceful semi-invalidism, and
+enjoyed the coming and going of her children, but her own time was over.
+
+"How good you are, Sylvie dear!" and, drawing the young girl to her, she
+kissed her fondly. "I don't know what I should do without you. Irene
+would stay at home if I wanted her; but she is so full of life and
+excitement, that it wears me out. You are not always in such a whirl of
+society, and then you _are_ different. You have such a sweet,
+sympathetic nature, child! I can always feel it in your hand, and your
+voice is so soothing. What a difference there is in voices!"
+
+Her own was finely modulated: indeed, Sylvie used to think sometimes
+that these Lawrences had more than their share of the good things of
+this world. No physical gift or grace had been denied them.
+
+So Sylvie read and talked, and sang two or three songs before she went
+home. Then she came again and again, sometimes with her aunt, oftener
+alone. Miss Barry took duty calls with her neighbors as one of the
+demands of society, to be fulfilled with the fine grace of thorough
+good-breeding. Beyond the little formalities that always surrounded her
+like a delicate hoar-frost, there was a large heart for the weal and woe
+of all who could in any way be benefited.
+
+"It is a pity to see such a waste of life," she said of Mrs. Lawrence.
+"Some people, after they have served their own turn, and had their good
+time, set about doing something for God and their neighbors at the
+eleventh hour; but she still clings to self, even when all the pleasure
+has dropped out. If she only would exert herself a little, her health
+and interest would improve, and she has so much in her hands."
+
+One day Sylvie had turned the last leaf of her book, when Fred Lawrence
+crossed the hall, having come home unexpectedly half an hour before.
+"Miss Sylvie is with your mother," the housekeeper had said; and he had
+begged that they should not be disturbed. He stood now listening to the
+cool, soft voice, and an odd thought entered his mind.
+
+Sylvie should really be a daughter of the house. How his mother liked
+her, depended upon her! She was not always going to watering-places and
+parties and theatres, she did not talk continually of dress and
+conquests. He did not despise cultivated elegance: in fact, it was a
+strong point with all the Lawrences; but he knew that a great deal of
+this much-praised culture ran into artificiality, while Sylvie's
+elegance had the comprehensiveness of nature. It would be quite
+impossible for her to do an awkward or ungraceful act; for her innate
+sense of beauty, harmony, and right guided her. Something higher than
+worldly maxims toned her soul. And though he, a man with his hands full
+of gold that he had never earned, could content himself with indolent
+dilettanteism, he wanted an earnest, honest, truthful woman, if he ever
+took a wife. He had flirted in a lazy fashion, common with young men who
+find themselves an object to women, and who have only to raise their
+hand, sultan-like, to bring a host of houris. That he had kept out of
+many grosser pleasures was perhaps a credit to him, although that was
+not the weak side of his character.
+
+He did not fall in love with the picture before him, sweet as it
+was,--the young girl in a soft flowing white dress (she was too true an
+artist to have starchy outlines), the shimmering hair, the delicate
+wavering color, the proud poise of the head, the plump white arm and
+slender fingers with their pale-pink nails, and, above all, the
+exquisite voice that seemed so to enter into the culmination of the
+story, the last few sentences of pathos, joy, and complete fruition.
+
+She closed her book. Neither of the ladies spoke. Mrs. Lawrence had been
+deeply touched. She lived almost exclusively in this world of fictitious
+sentiment, I was going to say; but I remember that it is often a
+transcript of human lives. Still she liked sentiment in books, out of
+them she scarcely recognized it.
+
+There was a step and a low tap at the door; then, before Mrs. Lawrence
+could answer, Fred marched in, kissed his mother dutifully, and shook
+hands with Sylvie.
+
+He had always liked Sylvie better as a little girl than any one else who
+ever came to the house, and he liked her now. How happy his mother would
+be! for of course they would go on living here. Irene would be away
+presently, and his parents would need some one. His summer work was
+mapped out before him; and really it was a pleasure to think he should
+escape the bore of society as one found it at summer-resorts, and
+entertain himself with this piquant brown-eyed girl with a heart fresh
+as a rose. He did not want a woman who had been wooed by every Tom,
+Dick, and Harry.
+
+Yet another and more heroic thought entered his mind after chatting with
+her a few moments. He would save _her_ as well. She might have a slight
+fancy for Jack Darcy: his sisters had spoken of it, and these great,
+fair, muscular giants were often attractive to women, through the very
+strength and rude force with which they pushed their suit. But such a
+lumbering, vulgar fellow in Miss Barry's dainty, womanish parlor! and he
+smiled at the thought. Yes, he would be doing a good deed to snatch
+Sylvie from any such possibility.
+
+Fred Lawrence suddenly assumed a new importance in his own eyes. He made
+himself very agreeable to both ladies. Sylvie remained to dinner; and,
+when Mrs. Lawrence would have sent her home in the carriage, he proposed
+to escort her,--he wished to pay his respects to Miss Barry.
+
+They did not take the most direct course, but, leaving the streets with
+their noise of children and possibly vulgar contact, strolled through
+"Lovers' Lane." The old trees met overhead; there were dooryards full of
+sweet, old-fashioned flowers, and now and then the sound of a weak piano
+or a plaintive voice.
+
+"I am glad these streets have been kept free from the vice of modern
+improvement," said he. "It always brings back a touch of my boyhood when
+I walk through them. Your aunt made a good fight, Miss Sylvie, when she
+refused to listen to the golden tongues of speculators, though of course
+you would have been much richer. But it can be turned into money any
+time."
+
+"Money is not every thing," answered the young girl, with a touch of
+sharpness. "Are one's own desires and old associations to count for
+nothing? This place was very dear to my aunt and to many others. I am
+sure there is quite enough of Yerbury laid waste now. The town looks as
+if it were a sort of general house-cleaning, and every thing was thrust
+out of doors and windows. And it was so pretty!" with a curious heat and
+passion. "It was like a dream, with its winding river and green fields,
+and men at their hay, and cows grazing in knee-deep pastures. Now all
+the milkmaids are herded in mills and factories; and the
+children,--well, there are no children any more!"
+
+"No children!" lifting his pencilled brows in languid surprise. "Why, I
+think you can find swarms of them. The poorer the man, the larger the
+family."
+
+"There are babies and babies; then little prigs and drudges. I am not
+sure I am in love with the so-called civilization. For the great
+majority it only means harder work."
+
+"Did we not learn in some school-book--I am quite sure I did--that
+
+          'Satan finds some mischief still,
+              For idle hands to do'?"
+
+"Are you not afraid?" She turned with a bright, tormenting smile to the
+handsome young fellow, who flushed under her clear glance.
+
+"For those who have brains, manual labor may not be the only chance of
+salvation," he returned with a somewhat haughty flippancy.
+
+"I wonder they do not turn their brains to some account."
+
+They reached the gate, and Miss Barry was sitting on the porch. Sylvie
+was too pretty and too womanly to be quarrelled with for the sake of a
+subject that did not in the least interest him. Beside, he meant to come
+in; so he opened the gate for her, and followed in a well-bred,
+gentlemanly way, that had nothing obtrusive in it. Miss Barry welcomed
+him with the quaint formality, the subtile air of education, refinement,
+and morality, so much a part of herself. It pleased him extremely, and
+settled him in his determination.
+
+"Sylvie has a touch of radicalism," he mused to himself; "but it is a
+disease of youth, and thrives by association. Take her quite away, and
+she will soon recover her normal tone."
+
+He found his mother still up on his return, and rather restless. She lay
+on her sofa, and dozed so much through the day, that night had but
+little slumber to bring her.
+
+"I am so glad you did not go to Long Branch," she remarked, as she toyed
+with her son's silken, perfumed hair. "I get so lonesome when your
+father is away; and he seems to think of nothing but business"--in a
+complaining tone. "I do not know what I should do but for Sylvie. She is
+such a charming little body! Fred, do you think there is any truth in
+Gertrude's gossip about her and that--one of your father's mill-hands,
+is it not? How can Miss Barry allow it?"
+
+"There is no truth in it," with a light, scornful laugh. "The families
+are neighbors, you know; and I suppose the boor takes a look for
+encouragement. I shall not go away this summer. I can find pleasanter
+employment."
+
+She pressed his hand, and smiled, as their eyes met. Sons-in-law were
+very little to one, except in the way of respectability, but a daughter
+like Sylvie would be such a comfort! Fred had no need to marry a
+fortune, but Sylvie would not be poor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+NOW that Fred Lawrence had come home, there was no need of going so
+often to Hope Terrace, Sylvie thought. Time never hung heavy on her
+hands; for she was not indolent, and there were friends and pleasures.
+Miss Barry had a conscientious misgiving that Sylvie ought to be taken
+about like other young ladies; but she shrank from fashionable life
+herself, and could not resolve to trust her darling with any other
+person. Beside, Sylvie always seemed contented.
+
+She was content indeed; at least, with her home and her aunt. Up-stairs,
+just out of her sleeping-chamber, she had a studio, chosen because this
+room, of all in the house, had the finest view in summer, when the tall
+old trees shut out so much. From here there were two exquisite
+perspectives. The trees and houses were so arranged that a long, arrowy
+ray of light penetrated through a narrow space over to a small rise of
+ground called Berry Hill on account of its harvest of blueberries. Two
+old, scraggy, immense oak-trees still remained; and she used to watch
+them from their first faint green to the blood-red and copper tints of
+autumn, when the sun shone through them. Down behind he dropped when the
+day was done; sometimes a ball of fire, at others bathed in roseate
+hues, tinged with all the wondrous grades of color, and making fleecy
+islands in a far-off, weird world, dream-haunted. She used to study the
+grand effects of shifting light, that made the hill bold and strong, or
+fused it into dreamy harmonies that seemed to have the subtile essence
+of music; then contrasts that were abrupt and apparently dissonant,
+quite against well-known edicts of human taste. Who was right,--the
+great Author of all? She smiled to herself when she heard people talk so
+glibly of nature, as if the one little rose-leaf were the whole world.
+
+The other picture held in its soft, still, light, an old-fashioned,
+low-gabled house with wide eaves; a broad doorway, with the upper half
+always open in summer; a well with curb and sweep and bucket where
+farm-hands came to drink; a pond with a shady side, where cows herded in
+their peaceful fashion, wading knee-deep on hot days, chewing their cud
+contentedly at others, browsing through golden hours; fields of glowing
+grain, then tawny stubble, a bit of corn with nodding tassels, and not
+infrequently a group of children, picturesque in this far light. It all
+stood out with the clearness of a stereoscope.
+
+She had her ambitions too, this bright little girl. They were tinctured
+with the crudeness of youth, and its boundless vision, it is true; and
+sometimes the passion of despair seized her soul in a cold grasp, when
+she felt hemmed in on every side, and longed for some opening, some step
+in the great world higher than fashionable frivolity.
+
+Miss Barry had no taste for famous women. They were well enough in the
+world: she paid a proper and polite deference to Mrs. Somerville, Mrs.
+Browning, and Rosa Bonheur,--that kind of intellectual deference that
+sets them out of the sphere of ordinary women. Wives and mothers were
+better for the every-day life of the world; since pictures and poetry
+were luxuries, accessories, but not home or food or clothes. Though she
+had missed her woman's destiny, she had not lost faith in it; though she
+had held out her hand to the woman who had made shipwreck of her own
+life for the wild, graceless brother's sake, she still looked on clear
+seas and smooth sailing as possible for lovers' barks. In her plans for
+Sylvie there was a fine, manly, generous husband; a love so sweet and
+entire that the girl should forget her restless yearnings; baby hands to
+cling to her, baby lips to press, young lives to mould, and a future to
+plan for others.
+
+Miss Barry believed in work devoutly, but gentlewomen had a firm place
+in her creed. The paintings and music were well enough as
+accomplishments, and she was proud of them; but she delicately repressed
+the other dreams and desires until Sylvie ceased to speak of them except
+to her friend Jack.
+
+Miss Barry had experienced some anxiety on this point, it must be
+confessed. You would never have perceived it from the wise little
+woman's face or any tone of her voice. She went more frequently to the
+Darcys of an evening with Sylvie: she rolled her easy-chair and
+work-table to the opposite side of the sitting-room, where it commanded
+a view of the piano and the sofa in the parlor, the door being always
+open. She could hear and see, she could make pleasant, trenchant
+remarks: indeed, she was one of themselves, as young in heart, if the
+hair did glisten silvery under the bit of exquisite thread-lace that did
+duty as an apology for a cap.
+
+Jack and Sylvie were not lovers. A rare good friendship it was, more
+perfect than brotherly and sisterly regard, in that it held no
+duty-element, and was spontaneous. Sylvie never laughed at Jack in his
+awkward boyish days: he had never tormented her small belongings as
+brothers are wont to do.
+
+Miss Barry feared the flame might be easily fanned. A little opposition
+or warning would bring Sylvie's innocent wandering thoughts to a focus,
+and kindle the fire. She was very wary. She trusted Sylvie to Jack with
+an air that said, "You are too honorable to betray the confidence I
+repose in you."
+
+The old class prejudice spoke out in this covert objection to Jack as
+a suitor. She honored him sincerely for giving up the dreams of
+ambitious and energetic manhood to stay at home and comfort these two
+delicate women. Yet (strange contradiction) she had a half fancy that it
+betokened weakness or lack of some kind in the very content with which
+he seemed to go about his daily duties. Alas for consistency! We preach
+content from the pulpit on Sunday, and on Monday glance with quiet
+contempt on our plodding neighbor, who can commune with the daisies by
+the wayside, while there is gold lying untroubled in desert gulches.
+
+Honest, sturdy Jack, taking up the duty of to-day cheerfully with a
+manful endurance, because the hands holding his fate were too weak and
+tender to be wrestled with, and that in his large, generous soul he
+could not war on a smaller antagonist, neither was it his nature to
+continually thrust any sacrifice he might make before the eyes of the
+one he was benefiting. How much silent heroism goes unpraised in the
+world, while we stand on the highways, and prate of our discrimination,
+our quick insight! Jack might be praised for his self-denial, but the
+higher appreciation was withheld. Even Sylvie was fretted at times,
+because he would get interested in all things pertaining to the mill.
+
+Miss Barry said to herself, "It is best that Sylvie should marry in her
+own circle, a man of cultivation, refinement, and position. Jack is a
+dear good fellow, but not the person to satisfy her for a lifetime."
+
+Jack thought nothing at all about it. He never gave up the idea of a
+great wide world, where he could have a hand-to-hand struggle with
+something as powerful as himself. He had come to no dreams of wife and
+children. He did like Sylvie with all his big, honest heart. If she had
+fallen in love with him, and betrayed it by some girlish sign, he would
+have been startled at first, then thought it over in his slow, careful
+way, asked her to marry him, and loved her devotedly all his days,
+leaving the dreams to the past with a tender benediction.
+
+But Sylvie was no more in love than he.
+
+As I said, she decided that she was not needed at Hope Terrace, and
+staid away four days. Then the carriage came, with a beseeching note.
+Had Fred gone again?
+
+She found him there in all his elegant listlessness. It exasperated her
+strangely.
+
+"What have you been about, Sylvie?" cried Mrs. Lawrence. "Is your aunt
+ill? It seems a full week since you were here."
+
+"Oh, no!" with her beguiling little smile. "I cannot tell exactly what,
+only I thought"--
+
+"You thought because Fred was home I would need no one else! As if a
+love-story would not bore him, and an invalid's whims--well, men are not
+women, my dear," decisively, and with a complacent expression as if she
+had settled the argument beyond any question, for the first time since
+the world began.
+
+"Why, you never tried me on a love-story," interposed Fred. "You do not
+know how deeply sympathetic I might be with your favorite heroines."
+
+"He is laughing at us, Sylvie. Ah, well! I suppose it is a man's duty to
+_make_ love, not to listen to it second-hand. How charming and fresh you
+look this morning! And how lovely it is after the shower of last night!
+Fred, if you could leave Latin verses and Greek essays you might take us
+to drive. We could stop and bring your aunt with us for lunch, Sylvie."
+
+"Thank you for her. She has gone to Coldbridge to see about a nurse for
+the Orphans' Home, and will not be back until four."
+
+"Then I can keep you without a single scruple," and Mrs. Lawrence looked
+oddly pleased. "Fred, tell them not to put the horses out. What
+wonderful health your aunt has, Sylvie! I don't see how she can endure
+the bother of those schools and institutions: it would wear me out in
+no time. But I have had a family of children;" and she leaned back on
+her pillow with a satisfied air.
+
+The carriage came around again; and with the assistance of a maid,
+Sylvie, and her son, Mrs. Lawrence walked down stairs. He handed both
+ladies in, and seated himself opposite with the air of a prince.
+
+Sylvie looked so bright and gay this morning, her velvety eyes full of
+tender light, her cheek all abloom with youth and health, the sweet
+scarlet lips half smiling, and her attire far enough removed from the
+rigor of fashion to have a kind of originality about it. She always wore
+something that added tone and brightness,--a bit of colored ribbon or a
+flower, or a bow that flashed out unexpectedly, as if greeting you with
+laughing surprise.
+
+"What do you do to mother, Sylvie?" Fred asked, with a touch of
+complimentary curiosity in his voice. "Yesterday she was dull and
+moping. I could not persuade her to drive."
+
+"It was so warm, no wonder. I felt dull and drowsy myself. But to-day is
+the perfection of loveliness."
+
+"And you have a charm, Sylvie. I do not know but it is your perfect,
+buoyant health. You seem to lift one up. I only wish I could keep you
+all the time," remarked Mrs. Lawrence with a touch of longing.
+
+Sylvie colored, and averted her eyes: then she gave herself a kind of
+mental shaking, and resolutely glanced back, uttering some rather trite
+remark. She would not suspect or understand.
+
+They came home again, and had lunch: then, while Mrs. Lawrence was
+taking her siesta, Fred carried off Sylvie to his study. It was
+luxuriously beautiful. Several gems of pictures adorned the wall, which
+had been newly frescoed to suit his fancy. Easy chairs lured one to test
+their capacious depth, some exquisitely-bound books were arranged in a
+carved and polished case, and the table was daintily littered with
+papers. He had an idea that a man's surroundings were a very fair index
+to his character and tastes, quite forgetting that it implied length of
+purse as well.
+
+He made spasmodic attempts at literary work. Abstruse essays were begun
+under the impression that he had something brilliant and original to
+say, but before they were finished a new train of thought led him
+captive. He dreamed delicately sensuous dreams, lapped in luxurious
+idleness, the rooms stifling with odorous hot-house flowers. He went
+clothed in soft raiment, he sunned himself in languid seas of
+imagination, and was too indifferent to concentrate his powers upon any
+great faith or belief, or even emotion. He had a contempt for cheap and
+plain belongings, as leaning insensibly to vitiation of taste. Nothing
+modern met his approbation. The old-time philosophies won him with their
+subtile flavor. He could propound his theories eloquently, but they did
+not touch him deeply enough to rouse him into action of any kind. All
+that his education and culture had done for him so far was to develop an
+incapacity for any regular, wholesome work that would be of the
+slightest use to any human being.
+
+Something of this passed through Sylvie's mind as she sat there. This
+handsome and stalwart lily of the valley, with no desire for toiling,
+and no ability for spinning, would be content to drift and dawdle
+through life on his father's money. At that moment he was more
+contemptible to her than Irene, winning lovers by the score, and casting
+them aside with no more compunction than if they were the litter of
+faded flowers.
+
+After all, why should she care if he did not reach her standard of moral
+and intellectual excellence, of that knightly chivalry whose
+rallying-cry was, "God and my fellow-men!" Why should she desire to
+rouse him from that complacent ease and fastidiousness, brought about
+by wealth, and the certainty of no need of effort on his part? Surely
+she was no modern apostle carrying around the watchword of work.
+
+Yet somehow--if all the subtile forces running to waste in both him and
+Jack could be galvanized into earnest, active life; if the sturdy,
+wholesome thought of the one could be mated with the clear, crisp
+training of the other; if both could have the wide outlook beyond
+material wants and comforts! It fretted her.
+
+Yet these two, sitting here on this peerless summer day, skimmed over
+wide fields like gay butterflies. She could not be in earnest with him.
+Just when she was roused and warm, he seemed to lift her by some flight
+of eloquence, and waft her to his realm of fancy. It annoyed her to find
+he had that much power over her.
+
+It must be admitted that when Fred Lawrence willed, he could be
+extremely fascinating. Women yielded gracefully, nay, eagerly, to his
+sway; and much delicate flattery had their eyes and lips fed him upon.
+Sylvie piqued him a trifle by her utter unconcern--or was it the fine
+instinct of coquetry inherent in feminine nature?
+
+There was no telling what this queer, bright, unconventional little
+thing might do if left to herself. A good marriage would prove her
+salvation. She had many womanly possibilities: yet, with all due
+deference to Miss Barry and her old blue blood, Sylvie might overstep
+the bounds, and take up some of the reforming projects so dear to
+elderly spinsters. As Mrs. Fred Lawrence she would be held regally above
+them, and could depute her charitable work to her aunt.
+
+In justice to the man, it must be confessed that Sylvie's dainty,
+piquant loveliness stirred his soul; and, if self had not been so
+intense a centre, he might have been ardently in love, or
+clearer-sighted. Much of the time her demeanor toward him was coldly
+indifferent: yet the misfortune was, her interest in all things kindled
+so easily that she could not, at a moment, change to him. Her moods of
+reticence and shy evasion added a flavor to the cup. With a man's
+egregious vanity, he jumped at the conclusion that these little
+intangible things signified love.
+
+One day Sylvie stumbled over Irene. She came flying up stairs with some
+choice nectarines for Mrs. Lawrence, a kind that seemed only to reach
+perfection in Miss Barry's old-fashioned garden. There sat Irene,
+superb, nonchalant.
+
+"Oh, you little darling!" clasping her, and pinching the peach-bloom
+cheek. "I am so glad to have a glimpse of you; for mamma has sung your
+praises until I ought to be jealous, but out of my boundless generosity
+I still smile upon you. No need to ask how _you_ are, but one may
+inquire after your aunt?"
+
+"Miss Barry is quite well," Sylvie said with some constraint,
+remembering their last parting.
+
+Irene had honestly forgotten it. She laughed now, a low, ringing,
+melodious laugh.
+
+"Why, it is quite a treat to see you open wide your sunrise eyes. I have
+taken everybody by surprise, and enjoy it immensely. Gerty and I are off
+to fresh fields and pastures new, and home came right in my way. Sylvie,
+you are a good little creature to come and amuse mamma when her own
+lovely and amiable daughter is racing after the pomps and vanities of
+this naughty world. Sit down;" and she made room on the sofa beside
+herself. "Don't let such a frivolous creature as I turn you from the
+post of duty."
+
+"I did not come to stay," Sylvie answered rather stiffly.
+
+"As if the intention were cast in adamant! Oh! why is not Fred here to
+use his persuasive tongue?"
+
+There was a peculiar laughing light in Irene's eye that annoyed Sylvie,
+for it seemed to indicate a secret knowledge.
+
+"I can stay just half an hour," was the reply in a decisive tone. "At
+eleven I take my lesson in painting.-- Aunt wanted you to have these,
+Mrs. Lawrence, in their first bloom of ripeness."
+
+"They are delightful. A thousand thanks to both of you, my dear."
+
+"And you really manage to exist in this dull place, Sylvie! You are a
+miracle of content," interposed Irene.
+
+"I have not come near dying yet," was the rather dry rejoinder.
+
+"You need not be so curt and sharply sweet, my dear. Here I have been
+listening to marvellous accounts of your amiability and devotion"--
+
+"Don't, Rene!" implored her mother. "Sylvie _is_ good to me."
+
+"And it might make the sweetness weak if she stretched it out to me!
+Keep it intact for those who so delight in it. I am fond of spice and
+high flavoring."
+
+"These nectarines are perfect," declared Mrs. Lawrence. "One can taste
+the sunshine in them."
+
+"How poetic, mother mine! Does Fred come and read Latin verses to you
+and Sylvie? I may have one"--stretching out her jewelled hand. "Oh, they
+are delicious! worth coming home for, even if I had not wanted mamma's
+pearls."
+
+"And money and every thing," added her mother. "Rene, you ought not to
+be so extravagant. Papa is quite depressed with the state of business."
+
+"Yes, I have heard _that_ ever since I left my cradle;" and Rene laughed
+gayly.
+
+It suddenly crossed Sylvie's mind: what if this proud, imperious girl
+should be reduced to poverty some day?
+
+"Don't plan a conspiracy against me, Sylvie Barry! I saw it in your
+eyes!"
+
+A vivid flush overspread Sylvie's face, as if she had been caught in the
+commission of some crime. Irene's laugh rang again with a peculiar
+irritating sound.
+
+"I could not form a conspiracy against you--even if I so desired. And I
+must go."
+
+Sylvie rose with a haughty air.
+
+"Wish me worlds to conquer at least, or scalps to hang at my belt. No?
+You ungracious little thing! There is a good-by kiss to show you that I
+always hold out the right hand of peace."
+
+"Have the carriage, Sylvie: it will not take a moment"--
+
+"No, thank you," in a crisp tone. She would have nothing of these
+Lawrences just now.
+
+"Fred will get a spicy wife," commented Irene, with a peculiar smile.
+
+"She is never so with him. They get along beautifully," said the mother.
+
+"Fred is too lazy to rouse Sylvie. Women have quite spoiled him. And
+Sylvie is ever so much prettier when a trifle vexed. Don't tell me about
+her angelic qualities, though I suppose she does keep super-amiable
+before you and Fred just now. I wonder if I could if I were in love!"
+
+"Irene, I am sorry I hinted it. If you begin to tease Fred"--
+
+"I shall not: set your heart at rest. I give full and free consent, and
+approve heartily. Beside, the little thing might throw herself away if
+she was not looked after. There will always be some one to stay at home
+with you."
+
+Mrs. Lawrence turned to her book and her nectarines; and Irene tumbled
+over jewel-cases,--a proud, imperious beauty, whose heart had never been
+touched, who cared only for pleasure and triumphs. Over yonder, men and
+women were toiling, that she might have gold to squander. They lived
+scantily, that she might feast. And the brave old world, seeing it all,
+uttered a silent groan. One day it would speak out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+SYLVIE BARRY meanwhile walked along rather rapidly for a warm morning.
+She felt irritated. Her sweet lips were set in defiant curves, the red
+heats of annoyance burned and faded on her cheek with each passing
+thought, and there was something out of harmony: a fateful discordance
+that swept over her, as if the parts of music had been wrongly put
+together.
+
+Did they think--did Fred imagine--
+
+She had never faced the idea before. Now she thrust it out in the garish
+sunlight. Her eyes sparkled, but there was no triumph in the girl's
+fine, resolute face. This man might lay his father's wealth at her feet,
+borrowed plumes in which he was quite content to shine; his heart--and a
+smile of withering scorn crossed her red lips. She would be a little
+dearer than his horse: dogs the fastidious man could not endure.
+Practically his wooing would be,--
+
+          "I will love thee--half a year,
+              As a man is able."
+
+Not because of a fresher, fairer face: he would give her all he had, all
+that he could rouse his languid pulses to experience. She would be
+lifted out of her present occupations and interests; for Sylvie was too
+clear-eyed to blind herself with the specious reasoning that as the wife
+of a rich man's son, she would be a greater power in the world for good.
+They would fit her into _their_ sphere. She fancied herself coming to an
+aimless middle-life like that of Mrs. Lawrence, taking no interest in
+any thing, but reading novels, and complaining, to pass away the time.
+
+Did she really care for any one else? More than one young man in Yerbury
+had paid her the peculiar deferential attention that asks encouragement
+if there is any to give, but is too truly delicate to proceed without.
+Then there was Jack, who understood her soul better than any one else;
+but had he touched her heart in a lover-like way?
+
+She turned her clear, honest eyes to the blue overhead, as if taking
+Heaven for a witness. Her heart and fancy were quite free. Much as she
+cared for him, there was no thrill of that high sentiment in it.
+
+In some fascinating ideal life she had seen a lover with whom she could
+walk down through the years, whose life would touch hers at all points,
+who could fathom the depths of the nature that so puzzled herself, who
+could measure and supply the yearning reaches of intellect; who could
+awake in her soul a love, strong, deep, and unquestioning, so fervent,
+indeed, that she would turn from all other dreams and desires to him. A
+young girl's ideal--perhaps it is well for the world that some women
+have ideals, and keep faith with them.
+
+As for Fred, his vanity led him straight on. She tried honestly to place
+herself right in his estimation; but he misunderstood her, and liked her
+the better for the variety. She saw too, with dismay, that her aunt
+favored him. Her natural kindness of heart shrank from the pain of
+rejecting him, and to her the triumph had no pleasure. But in her
+anxiety and desperation she saw only this one course.
+
+He dropped in nearly every day, he took her and Miss Barry to drive. He
+haunted croquet-parties, which he hated, because she accepted
+invitations to them. He never met Jack. Some fine sense warned the
+latter that an encounter in Sylvie's parlor would be uncomfortable.
+Yet, strange to say, sometimes when he saw the handsome fellow
+sauntering by, a peculiar tenderness came over him, remembering the
+little boy who had clung fondly to him.
+
+An old-fashioned courtship would prove no end of a bore, Fred decided.
+So one day he marched over to Larch Avenue when he knew Miss Barry was
+alone, and laid his case before her. She received him with graceful
+kindliness, listened to his offer, and assented with evident pleasure.
+There was not a happier woman that night in all Yerbury than Miss Barry.
+The care and desire of her life had been justly crowned. Her good-night
+kiss to Sylvie was inexpressibly sweet.
+
+Fred did not see Sylvie for the next two days, but meanwhile wrought
+himself into a state that he was quite sure was proper and well-bred
+love. Then she came to Hope Terrace, and they kept her to tea. The late,
+heavy dinners were dispensed with at present.
+
+"Will you walk home, to-night, Sylvie?" asked Fred. "I feel in a walking
+mood."
+
+"The slightest symptom of industry ought to be encouraged," she made
+answer gayly. She had been of some real service this afternoon, charmed
+away a fretful headache, and restored Mrs. Lawrence to a comfortable
+state of feeling, and was correspondingly light-hearted. Then, too, Fred
+had kept out of the way, and been gravely polite to her at the
+tea-table. She liked him in such moods.
+
+It was a late August evening, with a small crescent moon shining softly
+as if its forces were well-nigh spent. The heat of the day was over, and
+the falling dew evolved a kind of autumnal sweetness, the flavor of
+ripening fruits rather than flowers. Yerbury was very quiet in the part
+they were to traverse. They walked under great maples where a shadowy
+light sifted through, and the houses looked like fragments of dreams,
+with here and there a lamp in a distant window. The slow wind wandered
+through pines and hemlocks, as if some fairy Puck had laid his finger to
+his lips, saying to crooning insects, "Hush, hush!" A night to dream as
+one went down "Lovers' Lane."
+
+Sylvie was radiantly beautiful. Her face always changed so with her
+moods. Every feature had a perfect sculptured look, but intensely
+human,--the straight nose with the flexible, sensitive nostrils,
+quivering at any sudden breath, the dainty chin and white throat, the
+red curved lips that seem to smile at some inward, richly satisfying
+thought, the large lustrous eyes serious as those of a nun, and the
+calm, clear brow that seemed to index the strength and fineness of the
+nature. He did not take in any of the occult meanings: to him she was
+simply a pretty girl whom he could dress in silk instead of lawn.
+
+The small hand had lain on his arm without the faintest movement. Now he
+took it in his, and pressed it softly. She frowned, and made a slight,
+repellant gesture.
+
+"Sylvie?" with a lingering intonation that was hardly inquiry.
+
+"Well!" roused out of her quiet into a momentary petulance.
+
+"Sylvie, I love you. Will you be my wife?"
+
+In his most commonplace dreams he had never made love so briefly. He
+startled himself.
+
+"Don't!" in a short, decisive tone, as if he were merely teasing.
+
+"Sylvie, I am in earnest;" and in his tone the man spoke.
+
+"Then I think you are mistaken." She seemed to look at him in the cool
+light of invincible candor and honesty.
+
+"No, Sylvie, I am not mistaken," gaining courage that it was to be
+argument instead of sentiment. "I have had this purpose in my mind for
+some time, and have solicited your aunt's consent. You have only to
+say"--
+
+"I have many things to say, but assent is not one of them;" in a voice
+that, though low, seemed to cleave the air with a steely ring. "You
+think you love me. Perhaps you do--as far as you are capable of loving
+any thing beside yourself. You have seen a good deal of me this summer,
+and have made up your mind to marry. I possess some of the necessary
+requirements, and doubtless suit you better than any mere fashionable
+woman. But you have none of that intense desire that makes a matter of
+life and death of love, that elects one woman, or forever keeps a vacant
+niche in the soul."
+
+"Sylvie!"
+
+Her passionate words stunned him. He turned to her with a puzzled look,
+a certain helplessness, as if he were stranded on some far, foreign
+shore. And then he met her lustrous eyes, so clear that they were almost
+pitiless in the glow of undimmed truth.
+
+"Can you not trust me?" with the gentle reproachfulness so winning to
+most women, so confident of a victory over a heart that loves.
+
+"I could trust you to care for no other woman when your word was passed,
+but it seems to me," and her heart swelled with something like contempt,
+"that you are but playing at love. Marriage in your estimation is a fit
+and proper step: your mother likes me, you prefer me to any one else"--
+
+"Good heavens, Sylvie! what more do you want?" and a flood of scarlet
+mounted his calm, handsome brow. "When a man chooses a woman out of the
+whole circle of his friends and acquaintances, what higher compliment
+can he pay her? I have seen women beside those in Yerbury; and, though
+it may savor of vanity, I believe there _are_ those who would
+appreciate"--
+
+"I wonder you did not go to them;" with a fine irony, cutting short his
+sentence.
+
+"Because I liked you, chose you."
+
+"I do not so desire to be chosen," she answered quickly. "The man I
+marry must win my respect, my highest faith; must have an aim, an
+ambition, and not dawdle through life as some silly woman might."
+
+The decisive voice seemed to cut a path between him and her as it went.
+It struck home uncomfortably.
+
+"Then I suppose you call all men not engaged in manual labor,
+dawdlers,--scholars, poets, men of leisure, who can devote their lives
+to work that requires patience and fineness of detail, rather than the
+heavy swing of a blacksmith's hammer. When a man has no need of
+work"--and Fred paused, a trifle out of temper.
+
+"I do not believe God ever made an idler," she said, with high gravity
+that widened the gulf between them. "To whom much is given, much will be
+required."
+
+How unreasonable she was! He hated women who flung texts or proverbs at
+you; and yet he did not hate her. She had a girl's flighty notions, born
+of crude contact with inferior minds, and perhaps over-much
+novel-reading.
+
+"I do not exactly understand what a man must do to win your love," he
+said in one of those calm, intensely irritating tones. "I have chosen
+what suited me best,--culture, refinement, and the education that fits
+me for the sphere in which I am likely to move all my days,"
+impressively. "It is true, much of the wisdom of the world is little to
+my taste. I do not know why a man should wade through a slough of evil
+for the sake of repenting afterward, for looking white in contrast to
+that foul blackness. The ninety and nine just ones seem to me the better
+example."
+
+"I am afraid I shall not be able to make you understand," she went on,
+with a little hesitation. "Perhaps I have not the power or patience to
+shape a man's soul to a noble purpose or ambition. I want him strong
+and earnest, full of energy and that high sense of duty to all around
+him, not satisfied to drift down the stream in frivolous content, but to
+make the way better for his having gone over it. I want him true as
+steel to his friends, generous, yet uncompromising to his foes, to all
+evil; the kind of man who, if crushed down by fate to-day, could see
+some ray above his head to-morrow, who has sufficient moral fibre not to
+be rigidly bound by class feelings and narrow prejudices."
+
+Sylvie paused, startled at herself. She had never framed her hero in
+words before, and that she should do it for this man!
+
+"These are the heroes of our youth, Miss Sylvie, and you are very
+young," in that insufferably patronizing tone.
+
+"I am old enough to know what I want," she retorted, all the fiery blood
+in her pulses leaping to the charge. "I think, too, I can discern
+between the true worker, and him who is content with the frivolous
+outside show."
+
+"Perhaps not. You have been advising me, now allow me a like privilege.
+Do not imagine me actuated by jealousy,--that vice of the Moor is not in
+my nature. I have seen with some surprise that your fancies were for
+those beneath you in the social scale. A woman always loses in this
+dangerous experiment. She seldom raises her commonplace hero to a level
+with the gods, and is much more likely to be dragged down."
+
+She turned suddenly, her face flaming scarlet. The indignation misled
+him. He took it as a sign of personal anger, and wondered if she could,
+if she _dared_, throw him over for that coarse, stupid, blundering
+fellow.
+
+"Yes," he continued, glad to stab her in a vulnerable point; "you
+certainly have made a mistake, if you think this soul an aspiring one. A
+boy who excels in brute strength and force merely, a man who makes a
+deliberate choice between the nobler results of education and the
+common purposes of rude daily labor, will hardly rank with a knight of
+Arthur's time, even if some self-deceived woman chooses to lavish her
+affection upon him."
+
+"If you mean Mr. Darcy"-- And she stood quite still, tremulous with
+passion.
+
+"I mean Mr. Darcy." She had not shown such delicate consideration for
+his feelings that he should hesitate. "I do not see how you, with your
+artistic tastes and refinement, can find companionship in such a nature.
+I understand it very thoroughly. Beware, for you cannot plead even
+daffodil blindness, my fair Persephone."
+
+Sylvie Barry could have struck the man beside her. All the passion of
+her nature surged up in contempt, great waves of white heat. If a look
+could have annihilated, hers might. Even in the shady gloom, he saw the
+flashing eye and quivering lip of scorn.
+
+"Do not distress yourself about me," she answered, with suave
+bitterness. "Jack Darcy may be a mill-hand; but he has the honor, the
+white soul, of a gentleman! And you--you dare to trample on what was
+once a friendship!"
+
+"I believe he was once my admiration because he used to show fight so
+easily. He was for marching West then, and doing some grand thing; but
+you see his hero days are gone by. Ten years from this he may be a
+demagogue, a rank socialist, whining about equality. Still, if I must
+congratulate you"--
+
+She made a haughty gesture, and her first impulse was to let it go; but
+her truthful nature could not brook the implied deception.
+
+"You may congratulate me upon the friendship alone," with a clear, sharp
+emphasis.
+
+His shattered self-confidence returned suddenly, shaped to arrogance. If
+she was not entangled with Jack Darcy, there certainly was no one else.
+
+"Sylvie," he began loftily, "this has been child's play, and I am
+heartily ashamed of my share of it. Let us go back, and forget it. You
+have had your tilt at windmills; so suppose we return to common sense.
+You are still heart-free, it seems; and I beg pardon for repeating
+foolish gossip. Your aunt has accepted me as your suitor; my mother is
+waiting to receive you as a daughter; and I think," with some pride in
+his tone, "that few men can offer you a cleaner hand, or a better
+record. You will have a life of ease and leisure, and-- Why, Sylvie, you
+can teach _me_,--you can help me up these glowing heights."
+
+"I have answered you!"
+
+She seemed to grow tall and regal as she stood there by the gate, the
+long, arrowy ray of lamp-light from within illumining her proud, cold
+face, that could flush with such bewildering warmth. He discerned in
+some dim way that she had access to a life far above his; an atmosphere
+like hoar-frost surrounded her, raying off fine points, that thrust him
+farther away into darkness and coldness. Had something been taken out of
+his life?
+
+The man's well-nigh imperturbable complacency had received a shock.
+
+"Good-night," in a softer tone. One cannot break a pleasant friendship
+without a pang.
+
+As one in a dream he heard the gate close, the soft footfall on the
+brick walk, and a waft of voices from within. Then it occurred to him
+that he, Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence, had been rejected by this little
+girl upon whose head he had meant to shower the blessing of marital
+protection, the regard of a soul that was not quite indifferent, after
+all. What was this dull pang somewhere in his symmetrical, well-kept
+body? Was it the night that made his pulses heavy and turgid?
+
+Then he turned. "By Jove!" he muttered, "there's not another girl in the
+country that could have kept her fingers out of the governor's
+money-bags! Poor mother! What a disappointment for her! Of course
+Sylvie will marry Jack Darcy,--Pluto and Persephone again."
+
+Then he softly whistled a stave of opera-music, and sauntered about
+leisurely. He had no fancy for facing his mother that night.
+
+As for Sylvie, she knew her face was very white when she entered the
+door; but she bustled about with womanly evasion, and began to ask if
+her aunt had been lonesome, if any one had called, and declared she was
+tired from walking home, and her head ached a little, which was true;
+and presently the two women barred their doors, and went to bed.
+
+Was she glad to have it over? Was she sorry she had left no loop-hole
+for future hope? Strange to say, she could not tell.
+
+"But I could never live, like a pauper, on some other person's money!"
+she thought decisively. "And he did not care. It was for his mother's
+sake chiefly."
+
+Again there was a breach between the Montagues and the Capulets, this
+time crossed by no lovers' hands. Mrs. Lawrence was highly indignant,
+Miss Barry vexed and sore disappointed. They went the even tenor of
+their way, however, while the poor self-made invalid at Hope Terrace
+grew more querulous and exacting. Fred took a week at Saratoga to
+restore his wounded vanity, and then settled himself at a hotel in New
+York, wondering if he had not better read a little law to pass away the
+winter. Mrs. Minor was a queen of fashion, and she was glad to have the
+attendance of her handsome brother. Irene and Mrs. Eastman flitted about
+like gay butterflies, with trains of admirers. The faint mutterings in
+the financial world made little difference to them. It was their
+province to spend, to enjoy; and what the strata beneath them did or
+suffered or hoped, was of no more account than the far-off ocean-froth
+beating up on the hard white sand,--picturesque in a drama or a story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+IT was a dull, gray day, the first of December. Autumn had set in early
+this year. There had been a week of cold rain that had quite destroyed
+the magnificent foliage, one of Yerbury's greatest charms; and it became
+a sodden mass, trodden under foot by pedestrians. The ground was baked
+by sharp frosts at night, making the unpaved streets a mass of ruts
+early and late, and quagmires in the middle of the day.
+
+Yerbury had changed much from the pretty, clean, thriving country-town,
+to something that aped a grand city; unfinished streets, small farms
+laid waste, rows of pretentious houses or florid cottages that had never
+been thoroughly completed, nearly every one adorned with the ominous
+placard, "For Sale." They needed painting and tidying: vines were left
+about, dahlia-stalks hung to poles, steps were awry, and gates swinging
+on one hinge; heaps of ashes and garbage lay here and there.
+
+This day Yerbury wore a particularly listless air. The leafless trees
+hung out long and drooping arms, that swayed to and fro in the biting
+wind. The sullen sky overhead added its tone of dreariness to the
+picture. There was no cheerful whir of factories and shops, no brisk
+steps of men going to and fro, though there were enough standing around
+in groups with scowling faces and compressed lips, or flushed with angry
+gesticulation.
+
+The only places that evinced any air of business were the beer-shops.
+Here a man harangued his fellows; there he did not deign to argue, but
+openly cursed. "Let's treat on that!" said one. "I'll stand to that
+sentiment," declared another. Sometimes voices rose so high that a
+proprietor was forced to command order.
+
+Yerbury was on a strike. There had been a new scale of prices with the
+opening of autumn, submitted to by most of the men with a sympathetic
+good-nature. Trade was getting dull. Fancy prices no longer ruled. An
+ominous feeling pervaded all classes. Building fell off. One tenant gave
+up his house, and took part with another. Housewives looked about for
+the cheapest market, and talked of making last year's coat or cloak do
+for the winter.
+
+Hope Mills had been among the first to propose this second reduction.
+David Lawrence had returned from his business tour much depressed. There
+was an undercurrent of distrust, a disinclination to lay in stock, a
+wordless questioning from eye to eye, with no hopeful response.
+
+Horace Eastman had worked himself into the charge of the inside
+business. He had no real interest, but a liberal salary; and Mr.
+Lawrence felt that he lifted a weight of care from his shoulders. If
+only Fred-- But with college training and elegant tastes he could hardly
+be expected to take to the dull routine of business cares. So matters
+had been left more and more to Eastman, who was shrewd and sharp, who
+always managed to get the most for his money.
+
+Now Mr. Lawrence was appalled by the amount of stock on hand. They had
+been running the mills at full capacity all summer.
+
+"We must offer goods at a lower figure," said Mr. Eastman promptly. "We
+must get command of trade again. Prices _will_ come down,--that is a
+foregone conclusion. The abundant harvests have glutted the market, and
+living will be cheaper. The laborer can live on less; and, if we can
+manufacture at less cost, we shall be all right again."
+
+"But there seems no demand for goods," said Mr. Lawrence faintly.
+"Store-shelves are full. People are carrying last year's stock with no
+call for it. It has always seemed to me, Eastman, that a liberal policy
+to workmen brought its own reward. They are large consumers. Cut them
+down to mere food and shelter, and clothes are the first to go. In
+decent times your workman is ashamed of a ragged coat."
+
+"All very true, Mr. Lawrence; but, if there is no market, we must create
+one. Sell cheaper stock to new men. That will make a demand at once."
+
+"Undersell! We used to call that a cut-throat business, Mr. Eastman;"
+and a flush stained the fine face, now rather worn and thin.
+
+"It is what we must come to. There is next to no premium on gold, and
+the first man who touches bottom will be the lucky one, to my thinking.
+Cheap goods, cheap every thing, will be the next cry. The farmers must
+dispose of their wool, and labor must come down. Why, ordinary workmen
+have been living like princes."
+
+The delicate brows were drawn thoughtfully.
+
+"I always hated to grind workmen down to a bare subsistence," spoke the
+honest, loyal gentleman, as God made him. Trade had not warped body and
+soul. He was an aristocrat, if you please, and his home was as sacred to
+refinement and elegance as a ducal palace. A common person would have
+stood in his hall until his errand was done, and he would never even
+have asked a workman to take a seat in his office; but his soul was
+honorable, if haughty.
+
+"Let me manage it," with a confident nod. "We'll keep the topmost wave,
+as you will see."
+
+So to New York Horace Eastman went, and arranged for a large
+auction-sale of goods, which was a remarkable success, and created quite
+a ripple in the sea of stagnation. Then he contracted to deliver another
+lot by the first of January, at certain prices. And now either
+manufacturer must give up profits, or workman yield his margin, and be
+contented with daily bread alone.
+
+"There really was no need of workmen owning houses, having Brussels
+carpets and pianos," argued Eastman. "They were in some degree
+answerable for the hard times. Every one wanted to out-do his neighbor.
+They were not content to live as their fathers had lived; and, where the
+mothers wore print dresses, the daughters must have silk. They had gone
+on altogether too fast."
+
+Yet only a few years ago workingmen had been urged to put their money
+into homes. Rows of houses had been built for them, and sold on such
+ridiculously easy terms, only a trifle down. The interest would not be
+as much as rent. Then the fascinating shopkeeper had flaunted his wares
+in the faces of the thrifty housewives. "A good article is cheapest in
+the end. This Brussels will outwear two ingrain carpets, at a very
+little advance on the first cost. No moths will trouble it, once down it
+is there for years, saving worry and hard work;" and the buyer was
+persuaded. Then there must be new furniture, and so on to the end. Was
+it altogether their fault? The old things were passing away. The world
+was awaking from its Rip-Van-Winkle nap. There was to be a wider
+outlook, a liberal cultivation, a general rising of every one.
+
+So there had been years of plenty, and men had pulled down the old
+storehouses to build new ones.
+
+Such people as the Eastmans and the Lawrences could not economize at a
+moment's warning. The screws must be put on elsewhere.
+
+At first the workmen looked at each other in blank dismay. Winter was
+coming on--a hard one it bid fair to be. Coal had risen, and in spite of
+the abundant harvest the absolute staples of life had not much decreased
+by the time they reached the consumer. Coffees were high: pease, beans,
+and chiccory were sold at a reduction, to be sure, and you could get
+lumpy heavy flour that spoiled your bread, and poor butter, and teas
+that were colored and doctored; and this was cheap living.
+
+There was a stormy wrangle. Meetings were held, and speakers figured out
+the actual cost of living. Less than the present rates meant loss,
+privation, and want in the end. So a strike was determined upon.
+
+Jack Darcy, being foreman of one department, stood, as it were, between
+the upper and nether millstone, at present just escaping both. He
+thought it hard that the men should have this second reduction so soon,
+and it did seem to him reasonable that profits ought to yield a little,
+that there ought to be a sympathy between them. Personally, he should be
+comfortable enough; but if he had a wife and three or four children, a
+helpless, bedridden mother, or a drunken father, or a do-nothing
+brother, hanging upon him, what then?
+
+He advised a little moderation and patience. It might be better to take
+the wages now, and wait until spring--
+
+"They doant give up any thing, as we sees," broke in an elderly English
+weaver. "The great house is full of every thing, and coal eno' burning
+in the greenhouses to ripen a few bunches of grapes out of God's own
+season, as would keep many of us warm. Who puts our coal down a dollar
+in the ton, or takes it off of house-rent when wages come down? I'll
+work as cheap as the next one if ye'll gi' me a cheap house to live in
+and cheap beef and bread. I doant care for money in the savin's bank, or
+a house that they tax all out o' sight. When I'm old I'll go to the
+poorhouse, I will; but I'm danged if I like starvin' before then, and
+they a-ridin' over us in their carriages. I left 'em over yonder"--with
+a nod of the head--"for that."
+
+"What do you think of it?" asked a thin, hungry-looking man, fingering
+his Cardigan nervously. "See here! If I could have one more prosperous
+year, I'd be through the woods, have the house I've worked so hard for
+settled upon my old woman, and would be out of the reach of misfortune.
+But this thing hits me hard, it does."
+
+"I don't believe striking will succeed just now," said Jack candidly.
+"And it's a bad time. Two or three weeks lost time will more than cover
+the odds in wages."
+
+"I don't want to lose time. I'd rather keep straight on."
+
+"It's the principle of the thing," broke in another. "I'd lose six
+months before I'd give in an inch. I'd have struck the other time."
+
+There was a call for the overseers, and Jack left the group. Eastman was
+talking to several of the men in his office. A fine, portly figure he
+had, indicating rich living and good wines; a man still on the sunny
+side of forty, stout, rather florid, a full dark beard and hair, but
+with eyes that were light and furtive; eyes that could stare you out of
+countenance, and yet not meet yours ordinarily, with a frank, outward
+look. He always went handsomely dressed, and wore diamond shirt-studs,
+an expensive seal-ring, a substantial watch-chain with two or three
+costly charms. He had not a flashy look, but the sign and seal of
+gentlemanliness was wanting in that intensely selfish face.
+
+He had heard of the disaffection. There was not much to say except that
+the new scale of prices would go into effect next Monday morning. He
+never asked a man to work for any less wages than he, the workman,
+considered his services worth. Here was the work, and the wages Hope
+Mills could afford to pay. They could take it, or leave it. There were
+plenty of men at Coldbridge, thrown out by the failure of Kendrick &
+Co., who would be glad to come. He could fill any vacant place.
+
+But the ball grew and grew by handling. There were union-meetings and
+violent harangues, much of them truth, too, but badly and unwisely
+used. And the result was that the men demanded the old wages, were
+peremptorily refused, and struck. The great engine subsided, and a
+Sunday stillness reigned. Down at Hull's Iron Works the same proceedings
+were going on, but the saloons seemed to profit by it.
+
+Jack hung around the mill for a while, then went down stairs. The
+chilliness in the air made him draw his coat together by one button, and
+slip his hands into his pockets. He sauntered through several streets,
+nodding to one and another, or exchanging a few words. Once again his
+advice was asked.
+
+"I think you had better come to work to-morrow," he said. "Don't muddle
+your brains with beer or bad whiskey: that will not make the way any
+clearer."
+
+"A good enough lad!" was the surly comment, "but why grudge a man a sup
+of beer when he can't have wine like the big folks?"
+
+Jack had hardly planned for the enforced idleness. He did not want to go
+home and read, he could not call on Sylvie thus early in the morning,
+neither did he feel in the humor for argument with any of the men. So he
+stopped at the door of a small office, and turned the knob rather
+hesitatingly.
+
+"Hillo, Darcy, is that you? Come in, come in! Sullen gray day, isn't it?
+Off on a strike, eh?"
+
+Jack laughed,--the sound with no real music in it, the sort of
+lip-service merely.
+
+"Come in, old fellow; don't be afraid. I've neither pistol nor bludgeon,
+and I'll promise to treat you civilly."
+
+The man's accents were clear and curt, with a certain ring of out-door
+freshness,--a capital voice to travel with up mountain-sides and through
+forests. The face, too, indicated a kind of joyous strength; for the
+blue eyes were merry and baffling, the laughing lips a brilliant
+scarlet, the nose neither Grecian nor aquiline, but slightly
+_retroussé_; a bronze moustache with long curling ends that were
+undeniably red, and hair a little darker, slightly curling as well. A
+broad-shouldered man with the deep breathing of intense vitality;
+healthy nerves that could enjoy laziness to the full, as well as a brisk
+walk across the country.
+
+A glance at the interior showed the place to be a doctor's office. On
+one side a long case with glass doors above and drawers underneath,
+filled with bottles and books and papers, perhaps in not the most
+systematic order; at the farther end a fire in an open-front stove; a
+luxurious Turkish lounge covered with russet leather, and a bright wool
+blanket thrown carelessly over it; several capacious armchairs; and in
+one, with his legs stretched out on another, sat Dr. Philip Maverick,
+eight and twenty or thirty years old, perhaps.
+
+"How nice and cosey you are! I really did not know what to do with
+myself. Yes, we are all on a strike, I am sorry to say."
+
+"Bad time," and Maverick shook his head. "What's the prospect? Have a
+cigar."
+
+"The prospect is that the weakest goes to the wall, of course," answered
+Jack. "Maverick, I am dreadfully muddled on this point. I have thought
+of it all the week. It _is_ hard on the men. I know the general advice
+is to economize more closely, but how can you do it just at the
+beginning of winter? One cannot move to a cheaper tenement, fire and
+lights cost more, and provision is a little dearer. Low living in winter
+does not conduce to a healthy state in the spring. Then, on the other
+hand, if they are going to make such sales as they did last month, they
+cannot pay the wages, and realize what they consider a fair profit. But
+why shouldn't the Lawrences and the Eastmans and many others give up
+something, as well?"
+
+Jack turned an anxious face to his listener.
+
+"All you manufacturers have been crazy the last few years," he said,
+delicately shaking the ashes from his cigar. "The country was such an
+extensive purchaser through the war, that your dreams became Utopian.
+Then everybody came home with some money and no clothes, and the people
+were large consumers. Now everybody has been clothed, and the stores are
+full, and here is a glutted market. Over-production, my dear fellow."
+
+"Then I do believe it would be better to leave off for a while. Still
+that would not suit as well. Half a loaf is better than no bread, to a
+hungry man. But, after all," said Jack, knitting his brows, "I don't
+altogether believe in the cry of over-production. The boys of war times
+are men now. They are pushing in everywhere for work. They want food,
+shelter, raiment. There are a great many more people in this town than
+there were five years ago. Even if we only depended on the natural
+increase of population"--
+
+"But, you see, people are forever crowding into cities," interposed Dr.
+Maverick.
+
+"I have a fancy they do not come much faster than they are called,"
+returned Jack dryly. "See what we have been doing around here. The small
+outlying farms have been bought up by speculators, cut up, destroyed for
+farming purposes. Their owners with families of children had to go
+somewhere. 'Come to the mills and factories,' was shouted in their ears,
+and they came. Now they are here, depending on their labor for bread,
+and Eastman will bring fifty or a hundred more from Coldbridge; and in
+the spring, if there is any difficulty, some more will come. The old
+ones cannot go back to their farms if they would. Their fertile gardens
+lie cut up into waste squares, their fruit-trees have been despoiled:
+they must starve here, or tramp to some other crowded town, and perhaps
+starve there. Will your farmer take in half a dozen hands at a moment's
+notice? Can they put themselves down in any country place, and go to
+work?"
+
+Maverick studied Jack intently, and then gave a low whistle.
+
+"Upon my word, Darcy, you _have_ been going over the subject. Take the
+stump. And of course you go against capital?"
+
+"No, I don't," returned Jack shortly. "Only it does seem to me that
+there ought to be some place where capital and labor could strike hands.
+It appears to me, both have been to blame. We cannot condemn men for
+crowding into cities, when there has been a steady call for them. We do
+blame them for not laying up a little money against a rainy day; but
+many of them have. Look at the cottages that have been sold to
+workingmen. Look at the bank savings. To-day, perhaps, as many poor men
+could pay their whole indebtedness, according to the ratio, as the rich.
+But we fly at the laboring classes, when it is only human nature
+cropping out. Your millionnaire puts his money into whatever he thinks
+will bring him the greatest return; your poor man puts his capital, his
+capacity, health, and strength, where it will earn him the most money."
+
+"Well, I don't see but they are both right enough," said Maverick. "And
+unless you are running over into communistic ideas"--
+
+"I am not," was the decisive reply. "Some one much wiser than I said,
+ages ago, 'He among you that will not work, let him not eat:' yet," with
+a humorous laugh, "if the rule were strictly enforced, there would more
+than one go hungry, I'm thinking. The great consolation would be that
+the right man would suffer, not the innocent and guiltless."
+
+"I really do not see what you are driving at, Darcy," and the other
+studied him curiously.
+
+"Well, I told you in the beginning I was muddled. I don't pretend to see
+my way clear, only I think we have just begun the fight. It is as much
+of an irrepressible conflict as that other, for which so many brave men
+gave their lives. And one point in it no one seems to take note of. We
+are proud of the increase of population in our country. Every city,
+town, and hamlet boasts of it, and the depopulated places run to slow
+decay. We welcome these people; and yet they must eat to live, and the
+majority of them must work, or they will have nothing to eat. I think
+the most of them labor cheerfully, and my experience is that idleness is
+the worst foe of man. But, on the other hand, every year invention so
+protects and fortifies capital, that one must do a larger business or
+employ fewer men. In five years the condition of labor has greatly
+changed at Hope Mills, and in five years more it will change again. This
+is the inexorable law of nature, or, I ought to say, growing
+intelligence."
+
+"Then I should say we wanted wider markets and a better classification
+of labor."
+
+A quick light came into Jack's eyes.
+
+"I think you have hit it, Maverick," he answered. "But what is
+everybody's business is nobody's; and we are so apt to forget that the
+world does move, and the condition of things changes all the time," and
+Jack's eyes dropped thoughtfully.
+
+"See here, Darcy, take Brock's Hall, and talk to the men to-morrow
+night," began the doctor eagerly. "They will listen to you because to a
+certain extent you are in sympathy with them, one of their number; and
+you do seem to have some clear ideas on the subject. No: we'll say
+Wednesday night, and I will get out some posters."
+
+Jack laughed. "What shall I tell them? I can't see how to get about the
+remedy clearly myself. The trade-unions have not hit it either. When
+they say to a man, 'Because I will not work for a certain sum, you shall
+not,' they lean on a reed that will surely break, and pierce themselves.
+Hunger is stronger than theory. No: I shall have to give the point a
+more thorough study before I become a blatant apostle."
+
+Philip Maverick blew out a curling whiff of smoke, and looked at his
+visitor through it. Darcy gave him a curious feeling, as if a good deal
+of excellent material were running to waste, that if shaped and trained,
+and brought up to higher purposes, might be of much good service to the
+world. Did he realize it himself? He was twenty-four, and had a good
+position as things went; and Dr. Maverick had heard the women of the
+house were prudent and thrifty, and had a nice home. Was Darcy bounded
+in by conservatism, or afraid of losing? or was he honest when he said
+he did not know just what to do? Yet he did not look like the kind of
+man to go plodding all his days.
+
+"Darcy, you puzzle me!" he began abruptly. "With that great body of
+yours, those strong arms and hands that look as if they could wrest
+Nature's secrets from her mighty soul, with that brow, and the resolute
+mouth, it seems as if you ought to be in better business than making
+cloth: pardon me. You don't use up half your energy. You ought to be
+planning a ship-canal across Darien, or tunnelling mountains. You're the
+square man; and how upon earth did you ever get fitted so smoothly to a
+round hole?"
+
+Jack laughed, and told his story very simply. To him there was neither
+romance nor heroism in it, just a plain every-day sort of compulsion.
+The tunnelling would have been much more to his mind.
+
+"Go on with the problem," said Dr. Maverick abruptly. "In the next five
+years I think we will all have use for our wits. We are going to see
+another change in matters, that will require more wisdom than is needed
+in mere money-making. See here, I'm interested in the thing. Let us go
+out, and hear what the men say about it."
+
+Maverick rose, and put on his great-coat, and lighted another cigar.
+Then the two started together.
+
+Maverick had been in the town just six months. He had studied medicine
+in Philadelphia and Paris, taken a three-years ramble over Europe, when
+a college friend begged him to come to Yerbury, and step into a vacant
+place. And he had what he fancied an excellent reason for it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+THE men were, for the most part, in sullen earnest. From their narrower
+outlook they could not see that capital was on the eve of a great
+revulsion; that credit had been stretched to its utmost. They had their
+own pet plans, their own indolences and careless habits; and, as was
+natural, their own desires were the sweetest to them.
+
+There were labor-meetings and harangues. There was a good deal of talk
+about the rights of labor and the tyranny of capital; of the rich mill
+and factory owners living in palaces, and the men in hovels; of what
+England had done, and of what we surely were coming to,--the rich
+growing richer, and the poor poorer. But Jack remarked that of the
+speakers there was not one who owned a little plot of ground, or had a
+bank-account. Two of them were disaffected English weavers, a third an
+Irishman, and the only Yerbury man was a quick-tongued, but shiftless
+fellow who had started in business for himself, and failed; a kind of
+handy Jack-at-all-trades, and correspondingly good for nothing.
+
+Before the close of the week the men in Watkins's shoe-shop had struck.
+There was quite an army of them now. The saloons were filled daily and
+nightly. Jack thought, with a little grimness, that they might better
+save their money for next week's bread.
+
+Several of the men in his room dropped in to see what he thought; and
+the result was, that on the following Monday morning ten of them
+presented themselves with a tolerably cheerful demeanor, and accepted
+the situation. By Tuesday night every vacant place was filled with
+hungry, haggard-looking men from Coldbridge. They were jeered at, and
+annoyed in various ways: the Yerbury men were called rats and turncoats
+and cowards. The mills were driven. There was another great and
+successful sale; in fact, amid the failures and difficulties about, Hope
+Mills loomed up like a star of the first magnitude.
+
+In the spring Mrs. Eastman and Miss Lawrence went to Europe; and Fred
+joined a party of young men on a pleasure-tour through California. Even
+Mrs. Lawrence was persuaded to try Saratoga in the summer. The great
+house was muffled, and left in the charge of servants; but greenhouses,
+graperies, and all the elegant adjuncts were cared for as assiduously as
+ever. David Lawrence used to think it over. Sometimes he was tempted to
+sell out his palatial residence, but who was there to buy? Other men had
+been caught with just such elephants on their hands. The papers were
+full of offers "at an immense sacrifice."
+
+Business grew duller and duller. There was a very great overplus of
+every thing, it seemed, in the world. Harvests were so abundant, and
+prices so low, they were not worth the moving. Fruit lay and rotted on
+the ground: you could get nothing for it. And yet there were wan-eyed
+and hungry women and children who would have feasted regally on this
+waste. Mothers of families turned and patched and darned, and said there
+could be no new garments this winter, while store-shelves groaned under
+the accumulation of goods. Men were failing on this side and that; the
+Alton & West Line Railway stock came down with a crash, and banks were
+shaky. Hope Mills were closed for a month to make some repairs, as
+business was rather slow just now.
+
+There was a great quaking in real estate as well. The large
+property-owners held on stiffly: times would improve; land was worth
+more to-day than ever, because every year there were more people, and
+they required more houses, and the thing would somehow right itself.
+
+Jack had taken his two feminines off to a great roomy farmhouse, where
+they had a horse at their command. Sylvie and Miss Barry were summering
+at the White Mountains. Dr. Maverick found a good deal of sickness among
+the poorer classes, low fevers and various troubles, that he knew well
+enough came from insufficient diet. But what was to be done? There was
+so little work, so much lost time, the inexorable rent, and the
+importunate grocer's bill. Up on Hope Terrace the luscious grapes fell
+to the ground, and were swept up as so much litter; the fresh, lovely
+vegetables passed their prime unheeded, and were tossed in the
+garbage-pit.
+
+September came in hot and sultry. Hope Mills started, but many another
+place did not open. There was a strange, deathly-quiet undercurrent,
+like the awful calm before a thunder-shower. Wages took another tumble,
+and now no one had the courage to make much of a fight.
+
+The second week in October there came an appalling crash. Yerbury Bank
+closed its doors one morning,--the old bank that had weathered many a
+gale; that was considered as safe and stanch as the rock of Gibraltar
+itself; that held in trust the savings of widows and orphans, the
+balance of smaller business-men who would be ruined: indeed, it would
+almost ruin Yerbury itself.
+
+There was the greatest consternation. People flew up the street,
+bank-book in hand; but the dumb doors seemed only to give back a
+pitiless glance to entreaties. What was it? What had happened? "Every
+penny I had in the world was in it," groaned one; and the saddening
+refrain was repeated over and over, sometimes with tears, at others with
+curses.
+
+The old officers of Yerbury Bank had been men of the highest integrity.
+Some were dead; some had been pushed aside by the new, fast men who
+laughed at past methods, as if honor, honesty, and truth were virtues
+easily outgrown. Among these were the Eastmans. George was considered
+shrewd and far-sighted, and for two years had been one of the directors,
+as well as Horace. They paid the highest rate of interest, which
+attracted small savings from all around. There had been no whisper or
+fear about it, so solid was its olden reputation. There were people who
+would as soon have doubted the Bible.
+
+Two days after this, George Eastman sailed for Europe, on a sudden
+summons,--his wife's illness. There had been a meeting called, and a
+short statement made. Owing to sudden and unexpected depreciation in
+railway-bonds and improvement-bonds, and what not, it was deemed best to
+suspend payment for the present. In a few weeks all would be straight
+again, with perhaps a trifling loss to depositors. Already the directors
+had been very magnanimous. Mr. Eastman and several others had turned
+over to the bank a large stock of mortgages: in fact, the virtue of
+these men was so lauded that the losses seemed to be quite thrown into
+the background.
+
+But the examination revealed a sickening mass of selfishness and
+cupidity; transactions that were culpably careless, others dishonorable
+to the last degree. If the larger depositors had not been warned, there
+was certainly a remarkable unanimity of thought, as, for the past
+fortnight, they had been steadily drawing out their thousands. Wild
+railroad-speculations, immense mortgages on real estate that now lay
+flat and dead: scanty available assets that would hardly pay twenty
+cents on a dollar.
+
+This was what David Lawrence heard when he returned from St. Louis, a
+heavy-hearted, dispirited man. Two recent failures had borne heavily
+upon him. If last winter had been dull, there was no adjective to apply
+to this. His first step was to mortgage Hope Terrace. He had deeded it
+to his wife, unincumbered; but now it appeared his only chance of
+salvation. Mrs. Lawrence made a feeble protest at first, and demanded
+that Fred should be sent for, but there was no time. He met his pressing
+notes, and was tided over; but, oh! what was to be the end of it all?
+
+An indignation-meeting was called; and so high ran popular feeling, that
+new directors were appointed for the bank. Mr. Lawrence would have fain
+declined, but the community insisted. In this time of general distrust,
+they came back to the loyal gentleman, who, whatever his pride might be,
+had never deceived one of them.
+
+Alas! had he not enough perplexity of his own, that this new sorrow and
+shame should stare him in the face, bow him to the earth?
+
+Not his own son, thank God! not any blood kin; and yet his daughter's
+husband, his fair Gertrude, of whom he had been so proud years ago! He
+went back suddenly to that old time, and seemed to see them all again as
+little children, a merry household; and his pale, delicate Fred, for
+whom his heart beat so anxiously. How they had welcomed his coming!--a
+son to hand down the name, a son to lean upon in his old age. Nay, those
+were the extremes of life: why should not men count on their sons
+through the burden and heat of middle life? Why wait until the evening
+for comfort?
+
+Where was he now? Did he think of the one who had toiled that he might
+spend? for, now that he looked at it with awesome calmness, like a thing
+standing apart, it was one long, dreary pilgrimage of toil. To what end?
+Was gathering together riches the noblest use of a man made in God's
+image? Ah, how poor and paltry an aim!
+
+Surely he had done something beside that! A pleasant home of culture and
+artistic beauty, a circle of refined people gathered about him, the evil
+and want and woe of the world shut carefully out by silken curtains and
+plate-glass. His daughters he had been proud of. No _mésalliance_, no
+common tastes, as he had sometimes fancied that he had detected in that
+pretty little Sylvie Barry. And his son?
+
+There had been no positive evil in his life. A young man's follies
+perhaps, but few vices, if any, thank God! He would never be a
+libertine, a drunkard, a gambler, a thief. But was negative goodness
+all? These twenty-four years spent in shaping and culturing, but to what
+end? Could he call him back from his pleasure now, and have him take up
+this struggle grown too heavy to fight single-handed? and would he be
+manful, brave, clear-sighted, and unrepining? No. He felt the change
+would be too great. The soul so used to ease and luxury, fine linen and
+soft couches, delicate appetites, indolent habits, intellectual pursuits
+and graces, to be put in rough harness of business at once, would be
+cruel, nay, worse, like chaining humming-birds to a dray-wagon. And
+Irene, flitting like a butterfly through elegant _salons_, how would she
+be content with poverty and a cottage?
+
+And was this all the work of his own hands? Had he laid up no treasure
+against the time of adversity, made no homes into which he might be
+received in his trial hour? For two years he had struggled manfully,
+earnestly; and all this time at his very gate there had been a traitor,
+turning aside the stream until there was nothing but a barren desert
+left.
+
+The crown of his life was poverty and ruin! For himself he could give up
+luxuries, and come to plain fare; but what of the others? This last news
+had swept away all hope.
+
+He sought Horace Eastman, and confronted him with his deceit and wrong:
+somehow he could not bring himself to call it by its true name, crime,
+and fasten it on the man there and then. There was a high-bred delicacy
+about David Lawrence, a little of the old knightly chivalry that in past
+times held a man back from striking a fallen foe. And then he was not
+quite sure. The dishonorable work lay between the two men, and he
+forbore to blame this one wrongly.
+
+He need not have wasted his pity on this man, or have so nicely worded
+his charges. Horace Eastman stood there, surprised to be sure, for he
+had counted upon getting away before this turn in the wheel of fortune.
+For the last year, though he had been outwardly triumphant, and had
+carried business matters with a hopefully high hand, he had known what
+the end must be, and made ready for it with a kind of exultant elation
+at the sense of difficulties surmounted and deceptions carried on
+successfully. He really despised the man before him, that he had
+sufficient faith in human nature to be deceived. Starting from the
+principle that all men are rogues when opportunity offers, he felt no
+more guilty now, than if he had followed any other well-known law of
+nature. He stood before Mr. Lawrence bland and composed: there was no
+vulnerable point to strike, so he need put on no armor. Many a time he
+had reasoned the matter out to his own satisfaction, that the failure of
+Hope Mills was inevitable. What with losses, dull times, and extravagant
+living, it would surely come. That he owed his employer any thing in
+integrity and sharp fighting with adverse circumstances, would never
+enter the mind of such a man, so inwrapped in self.
+
+"There were some irregularities for your son-in-law's benefit," with an
+insolent half smile, half sneer. "He was to explain them to you. There
+have been accommodations for the mills occasionally. You were away: what
+else could I have done?"
+
+A cold shiver ran over David Lawrence. That part of courage allied to
+hope seemed crushed out of him as if by torture. Could he drag his
+daughter's name through the mire? for it would be that in any attempt to
+bring Eastman to the point of responsibility.
+
+"Do you know how much this--this defalcation will amount to?" He would
+call the monstrous thing by its right name now, though he shuddered in
+every limb, and a cold perspiration stood in great beads about his thin
+temples. A third person witnessing his hesitation might fancy him
+faltering and shrinking in the path of dishonor, rather than the other.
+
+"I really have no idea," bracing up his broad, full shoulders with
+portentous dignity: "George managed that matter. No doubt there are some
+memoranda," pausing with an indifferent air as if it were a matter of a
+few dollars.
+
+"The bank must be made good, Mr. Eastman."
+
+"Well; as you think best, as you think best;" nodding confidently, as if
+the repayment were the easiest thing in the world. "Let me see,--would
+it not be better to write to George?"
+
+What impression could he make upon this man? To appeal to conscience,
+justice, or any latent sense of right, would be a waste of words. With
+him success was right, and failure the blunder or sin. He was to "do
+well unto himself," to gain the world's verdict of approval. That solid
+flesh made by good eating and drinking, not debauchery or
+intemperance,--the man had few of these gross vices,--that complacent
+strength, that keen, concentrating force than could bend all energies in
+the one direction, never looking back when he had once set his mind to a
+thing, experiencing no remorse for those he crushed under his feet so
+long as he went to success over them, knowing no disinterestedness,
+trading simply upon the credulity, honor, and honesty of others: he had
+chosen him for some of these very qualities. Do men gather grapes of
+thistles?
+
+"Bring the books to my office. I shall go over them to-night," was the
+haughty command.
+
+Eastman bowed and withdrew. The books were sent by the errand-boy. Then
+he threw himself into his luxurious Russia-leather chair, rested his
+feet upon the edge of the desk, settled his hands comfortably in his
+pockets, and began to consider. A man would be foolish to stay and be
+caught in the ruin of a falling house. He might not be crushed, to be
+sure; but there would be the _débris_, and he had no fancy for clearing
+that away. Not only the mills, but Yerbury, would fall flat. He did not
+care to retire to a garden, and raise strawberries and corn: the clink
+of gold was more melodious to his ear than the voices of nature. There
+was a place for talent like his: the quick sight and keen discrimination
+were still able to give the rusty old world a lift out of ruts it had
+stopped in, and send it on with a rush. He had money in some
+silver-mines: he might go West, and attend to that, then take a run over
+to England, and see George. After all, was George really to blame for
+getting hold of his wife's portion? He had married Miss Lawrence,
+believing in good faith that she was the daughter of a millionnaire;
+and, if he had been sharp enough to save something from the general
+ruin, lucky for him!
+
+On the whole, Mr. Eastman thought it would be well to go to New York for
+a few days until the storm blew over. Jeffries the book-keeper could
+attend to all that was needed. Mr. Lawrence would find Hope Mills in a
+bad plight, to be sure; but he would not be the first man who had come
+to ruin. Mr. Eastman put his desk in order,--he never kept any tell-tale
+papers,--walked leisurely out of Hope Mills with that serene, impassable
+face and high heart no misfortune could daunt.
+
+David Lawrence spread the books open before him. It would be an endless
+task. One fact kept burning into his brain like fire. The Eastmans, or
+Hope Mills, owed Yerbury Bank seventy thousand dollars, the hard
+earnings and self-denials of poor and middle-class people. How it stung
+his haughty pride, unused even to dishonorable thoughts! If he had been
+an exact master, he had also been a just and honest one. Shame and
+disgrace stared him square in the face, where they would have but looked
+askance at Horace Eastman.
+
+It had been quite impossible to take cognizance of every thing after the
+business grew so unwieldy. Then he thought of his son again with
+passionate longing. Never had he so wanted some of his own kin to lean
+upon, to take counsel with, to consider what must be done toward saving
+honor: that was no social figment with him, but a deep, heaven-abiding
+truth.
+
+Heaven! By some strange turn of thought it entered his mind. He was so
+tired, he had been so tired for months and months, so engrossed with
+cares and business, that he had hardly stepped inside a church. How they
+used to go in the old days; how proud he had been of his four pretty
+children, of his tall handsome girls, and his manly son! Respectability,
+and setting a good example,--these had been his motives for
+church-going. Bits of sermons came back to him: how strange that he
+could remember them! There was a rest from labor, a refreshing of soul.
+Oh, how dark and arid, how confused and chaotic, his felt! Was there a
+something he had never known?
+
+Then he pulled himself together mentally, roused his dreaming brain, and
+said something must be done. Fred must come back, and face the terrible
+truth. As well send for him now.
+
+He wrote out a message, and rang the bell. A tall, slim youth answered
+it.
+
+"I want this telegram sent immediately," he said in his quiet tone of
+command. "Is Farrell anywhere about?"
+
+"I can take it, sir, if you please: I often do."
+
+"Very well."
+
+Back to the books again with their long lines of figures. Did he think
+he would find the shame and ruin here in bold black and white? He
+studied them until they all ran together, and his brain seemed to become
+a mass of luminous light with black motes floating about in it. The
+tense agony abated. Strange visions haunted him, frivolous fancies, and
+wonders that had puzzled him in boyhood; heroic fragments of bygone
+declamation; the incidents of a week ago; a picture of some bold
+scenery, and he in the cars, whirling by.
+
+"Am I going crazy?" he asked with a ghastly expression. Then he took
+several turns about the room, listened to the noise of the great engine,
+and assured himself that he was sane.
+
+Had he better go home? He was so tired! In all his life he had never
+been so utterly exhausted. Then in a sudden, fretful mood of
+contradiction he wondered he should think of fatigue when his limbs felt
+strong, and his body knew no physical pain.
+
+"I must shake it off!" he declared resolutely. Of what avail would be
+going home to a wife's peevish complaints, and sit by himself to study
+out this tangle? As well stay here, and master it. And that palace
+yonder was home, and these were the comforts for which he had spent his
+years and his energies! This was what he had laid up. An inheritance
+incorruptible--why would these things come back to him?
+
+The mill-bell began its clang. He listened to the tramp through the
+passage-ways, the confusion of voices. He went to the window. The great
+gates for the work-hands were around on the other side; but he could see
+the motley procession filing down the street. Not gay and cheerful as in
+bygone days: they seemed to drag along, these girls and women in shabby
+clothes, their shawls drawn around their shoulders. Old men and
+boys--why, where had vigorous middle life disappeared? So many faces had
+a hard, discontented look, that pierced him like the sharp point of
+ingratitude. Had he not brought himself to ruin to give the people
+employment? If he had shut down the mill three years ago, he would have
+been a rich man.
+
+Well, why had he not? Was it thought for them? Had the prospect of their
+starving lain heavily on his soul?
+
+Ah, the love of money-getting, the fiend of covetousness! But what would
+these people have done? Some one had once said, "What is that to thee?
+Follow thou me." Was it in a sermon?
+
+He lighted the gas, and went on wearily with his books. Some one opened
+the door softly, and peered in. It was Farrell, the day-man. When he saw
+Mr. Lawrence he touched his cap respectfully.
+
+"Pardon me, sir: I saw a light"--
+
+"Yes, I am going to stay--all night, I think: I shall be busy. When does
+the night-man come?"
+
+"At seven, sir."
+
+"I will send a note up to Hope Terrace, Farrell. Could you take it?"
+
+The man thought of his long day's work and his waiting supper. "Yes," he
+answered rather reluctantly.
+
+"Stop in, then, when you go."
+
+Farrell went off grumbling. He would go home to supper first, that he
+would. These men had no souls. That long walk-- Some people always rode
+in chaises, were born with silver spoons in their mouths, and looked on
+the rest of the world as mere lackeys!
+
+There was some wine in the closet, and Mr. Lawrence took a glass to
+clear his brain. He rarely used it save at dinner. Then back to the
+tormenting books,--columns of business that appeared incredible now. How
+had all this money slipped away?
+
+Farrell tapped, and came in.
+
+"Jackson's here now, sir. Is the note ready?"
+
+"Yes. There is some change. Get a hack, Farrell: it is too far to walk.
+Did Mr. Eastman"--
+
+There was so long a pause that Farrell said,--
+
+"Mr. Eastman went to New York. He said he might not be back to-morrow."
+
+Mr. Lawrence nodded, as if that were sufficient. He would not peer into
+the man's business.
+
+"If you should want any thing, sir, Jackson will be at hand," said the
+man kindly; for the thin, pale face, and strange, nervous light in the
+eyes startled him.
+
+"Jackson," he began, when outside, "Mr. Lawrence is going to stay a bit,
+maybe all night. He has a great pile of books before him; but I'm afraid
+he's queer some way. His eyes look wild and strange. Keep a lookout,
+will you"--
+
+"You don't mean that he's likely to shuffle? Are things as bad as that?
+Has he got a pistol?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure. Maybe I'm wrong;" and Farrell counted over the
+money in his hand. "Anyhow, I would walk up and down this hall, and
+listen."
+
+Jackson nodded, and Farrell went his way; yet now he thought the brisk
+walk would not hurt him. Jackson heeded his bidding, but all was quiet.
+Once he went in the next room, and climbed up to a high sliding window,
+used for ventilation. Mr. Lawrence sat there poring over the books. At
+twelve it was the same. Jackson tolled off the hour of midnight. Every
+thing was safe in the great building. Then he settled himself in an
+easy-chair, and presently fell into a doze.
+
+Meanwhile Mr. Lawrence studied the books in a dazed, bewildered way.
+Here and there a balance had been struck, and it all looked fair. But
+there was a terrible wrong somewhere!
+
+The figures danced before his eyes in lurid lights and grotesque shapes,
+with grinning faces, flying, whirling, in a wild, demoniac waltz. The
+room was full. The procession he had watched to-night winding out from
+the mill, stopped and jeered, and pointed skinny fingers at him. Then
+he was at the bank, and they came in troops, wringing their hands, and
+cursing him. Strange tales that he had read mixed with them in
+inextricable confusion. Pictures of the past hurried by with panoramic
+distinctness; and hark! what was that? The grand trump of the Judgment
+Day? It tolled and tolled again, like a thunder-peal. Was any one dead?
+
+He was so tired! He put his arms down on the desk, and leaned his face
+on them. If he could sleep off this intolerable weariness!
+
+He was a boy again, wading through the limpid brook, stepping from stone
+to stone, and sometimes plashing over. Was that the dried sweetness of
+balsam,--the pungent odor of pennyroyal and water-mint,--the clean,
+resinous fragrance of the pines? Out there were lily-pads,--great
+golden-hearted chalices, with long, sinuous greenish-pink stems under
+the shady, transparent water. How cool and peaceful! The sky overhead
+was of palest blue with white flecks, and somewhere a bird was singing.
+If he could go to it; if he could stay amid all this sweet quiet, and
+forget-- What was it he wanted to forget? Not his little Fred, surely!
+How proud he should be of him in his manhood. What a help and comfort!
+
+There was a strange, sudden darkness. The head drooped a little one
+side, and the visions had come to an end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+WHEN Farrell returned to his post in the morning, Jackson reported Mr.
+Lawrence asleep in the office. No one thought of him again until about
+ten o'clock, when some protested notes came in. Jeffries knocked at the
+door, opened it softly, spoke, but received no answer; then stepped
+nearer, and peered curiously at the face. It was ghastly white, the eyes
+wide open and staring, and with a shriek Jeffries alarmed the whole
+establishment.
+
+Old Dr. Lecounte came, pronounced him dead, and then sent for Dr.
+Maverick, to whom he had taken a great liking. Between them both they
+found a faint sign of life; and he was removed to his elegant mansion on
+Hope Terrace, where his wife went into immediate and violent hysterics.
+They remained several hours, and decided it to be that terrible death in
+life, entire paralysis of brain, nerve, and muscle. He might linger some
+days; he might drop away any moment.
+
+Horace Eastman, looking over the news items the next morning, saw this
+account, and returned at once to Yerbury. Certainly fortune had favored
+him. Affairs were in wild confusion. He learned that a telegram had been
+sent to young Mr. Lawrence, and an answer received. He would be back
+next Monday. Mrs. Minor came up, and brought an experienced nurse.
+
+The mill kept open until Saturday. Then Mr. Eastman called the men
+together.
+
+He was very much puzzled to know what to do, he said. He had resigned
+his position as superintendent of the mills, nearly a month ago; but
+Mr. Lawrence had begged him to stay on until he could come to some
+decision. The affairs were in a very embarrassed condition, and now
+suspension was imperative. What Mr. Lawrence would have done, he could
+not tell; but he did not feel justified in taking the responsibility. He
+was most truly sorry--he could say it from his heart--for those whose
+cheerful faces and light steps he had watched year after year, until he
+came to have a friendly feeling for them all; and he was shocked at the
+result of all this trouble to his dear friend, to whom he was bound by a
+deeper tie than that of mere business. But there had been two years of
+unparalleled depression, and Mr. Lawrence had made a brave fight. No one
+beside himself knew all the difficulties that had beset his old friend's
+path. It was not only here in Yerbury that trade was dull: it was from
+the Atlantic to the Pacific. England, Germany, and France were suffering
+as deeply as ourselves. Production had been overdone by most of the
+employers using their best efforts to keep their hands at work in the
+face of a falling market, or no market at all. Shelves were packed with
+goods everywhere. We were on the eve of a great change, and it would be
+some time before values would become stable again. If the balance of
+trade (high-sounding, but imperfectly understood term) could once more
+turn in our favor; if we could export our surplus goods, and find new
+markets,--as no doubt we would,--every shop and factory would soon be
+ringing with the cheerful sound of labor. It would be a hard winter; but
+he, for one, believed the spring would open auspiciously, that business
+would revive, homes be prosperous, and every heavy heart light. Let them
+all take courage for their own future and that of Hope Mills in the
+hands of its young master. He regretted deeply that there was no money
+to pay them with to-night; but that would doubtless be attended to
+soon. He wanted to bid them a cordial good-by, and beg them to stand by
+young Mr. Lawrence.
+
+There was some rather faint cheering. Troubled eyes questioned
+despondent eyes; what were they to do with winter coming on? First it
+was the bank, now the mills, and what next God only could tell.
+
+Fred Lawrence reached Yerbury Monday evening; and at midnight the faint,
+fluttering soul of his father passed over that mighty river. There had
+been no return to consciousness. Mrs. Lawrence still lay in her darkened
+room, unable to bear any sound beyond that of the trained nurse.
+
+To say that Fred was shocked, would feebly express his emotion. He had
+never dreamed of his father's dying,--never dreamed of any thing like
+misfortune happening to him, of any keener suffering than some temporary
+annoyance. He felt quite helpless. His old philosophies did not inspire
+him with courage, or open a way out of this dark present. There was to
+be a funeral; there were business complications; some one had to think
+of the future; the mill was shut up, the fortune swept away, and he had
+been stranded on a strange shore, knowing not which way to turn.
+
+Eastman was still in Yerbury. He was intensely sympathetic with the
+bereaved family. In fact, now that he would never have to meet the eye
+of the man he had so deeply wronged, his spirits rose, his pity
+overflowed. Fred was quite touched by it. Hamilton Minor, with his
+rather brusque business ways, jarred against his sorrow.
+
+He was rather testy with Mr. Eastman. "For the life of me, I can't see
+how things have come to this pass," he said sharply. "Hope Mills has
+been considered as sound as a nut,--one of the surest places in the
+country. Mr. Lawrence has made thousands and thousands. I have known a
+good deal about his affairs."
+
+"It is the result of a large-hearted philanthropy,--of keeping poor
+devils at work when there was no demand for goods, so that they should
+not starve. I should have closed out the concern two years ago. When you
+begin to lose, it is time to get out,--not wait until every stiver is
+gone. But, if ever there was a noble man, it is our dead friend David
+Lawrence."
+
+His chest swelled as he pronounced this eulogy, and he laid his white
+hand sympathetically on his waistcoat.
+
+"What is all this bank muddle about?"
+
+"I really don't know. Heavy real-estate business"--
+
+"And you a director!" interrupted Minor, with an unpleasant quickness.
+
+"I have had so much on my hands that I did not pay strict attention to
+it, I must confess. You know, Minor, what a tremendous shrinkage there
+has been in values: it seems to me as if the bottom had fallen out of
+every thing. I have an interest out in Nevada that I am anxious to look
+after, and should have gone a year ago, but Lawrence begged me to hold
+over until matters brightened a little. He was so sure times would
+improve. By Jove! I think they grow worse and worse!"
+
+"And Fred knows no more than a baby!" said Minor, in a tone of contempt.
+"You'd be a help to him, Eastman, if you would stay and go over
+accounts."
+
+"I don't know about that," shaking his head slowly. "The books are all
+on the square, as you will see. If one could only make money as easily
+as one can add up that which has been made and spent!" and Eastman gave
+a little laugh.
+
+"But it cannot be a total loss. The house, I know, is settled upon Mrs.
+Lawrence. And the mill-property"--
+
+"Mortgaged for all it is worth in such times as these. Perhaps I ought
+not to speak of it, but George was in a little difficulty which the old
+gentleman tided over. Too much real estate, Minor!"
+
+Hamilton Minor had no great amount of confidence in the man before him;
+but then, he did not have in any one. He was on a little of the paper,
+and just now he felt exceedingly dubious about it. Some arrangement
+ought to be made whereby members of the family who had stood by Mr.
+Lawrence ought not to be losers.
+
+The funeral was strangely quiet and solemn; I was about to add, select.
+The mill overseers and officers were formally invited. Fred had a
+feeling about the men,--it seemed as if they ought to form a procession;
+but the walk to the cemetery was a long one, and Mrs. Minor decisively
+negatived any plan that took in the "rabble." The coffin lay in the
+spacious drawing-room, where friends and acquaintances, in the same set,
+nodded solemnly, and uttered a few words of well-bred condolence. The
+mourners were up-stairs. The few coaches were filled with men, a little
+group stood around the open grave, and David Lawrence passed out of
+mortal sight,--his life-work all done. Had the toil been worth the
+reward?
+
+The next day Eastman left for New York, and his stay there was brief. He
+knew what would be surmised after much trouble and searching, but it
+could not be positively laid at his door. And with a cheerful heart he
+set out to seek a new fortune.
+
+To the great surprise of Mr. and Mrs. Minor, they found Hope Terrace
+mortgaged. Mrs. Lawrence could talk of nothing, could not endure the
+confusion of voices in her room. Some trustees were appointed to
+investigate the whole affair, for Fred was as ignorant as a child of all
+pertaining to the mill.
+
+The examination disclosed a pitiable state of affairs. George Eastman
+had built up Yerbury on borrowed capital, lived on it in luxury,
+speculated, lost and won like any other gaming. He had persuaded each
+individual that he was on the high road to wealth. There had been a
+peculiar fascination about the man; or is it that the appeal to greed
+and covetousness is so much more convincing than that to honor and
+truth, that the baser impulses are quicker with their response? It was a
+great bubble upon credit, and carried with it the seeds of
+self-destruction. True, the bank held mortgages on rows of flimsy-built
+houses where walls were cracking apart, foundations settling, plumbing
+in such a condition that it was a hotbed of disease. They would not
+cover the indebtedness. The available cash had been drawn out by large
+depositors, the best bonds and stocks surreptitiously sold. And with all
+this there was a defalcation traceable to Hope Mills or the Eastmans.
+The money had gone in that direction. On the other hand, it was proven
+by the income of Hope Mills, and the amount paid out for labor, that
+there was no reason why they should not be solvent to-day.
+
+Lavishly as the Lawrences had spent money, they had not taken it all. No
+one could or did accuse David Lawrence of private speculation. Minor had
+once tried his best to induce him to join in some enterprises, but
+failed. It was an easy matter to blame the Eastmans for every thing:
+they were away, and could not deny the charge. But had all these
+bank-officials clean hands? They had been given a sacred trust, the
+savings of the poor, the estates of widows and orphans; they had winked
+at investments of the most precarious kind; they had paid a high rate of
+interest, exacting a higher, which had been gladly given for a brief
+while. Safe principles of finance had been quite ignored: the new era
+was different from any thing that had ever happened to the world before,
+and required new men, and now they would have to go back to the old way.
+Surely there is not much that is new under the sun!
+
+To bring back the Eastmans, and try them for their crimes, seemed hardly
+worth while. More than one man in Yerbury felt that it was safer to
+berate them at a distance, than meet their damaging retorts face to
+face. They could not get back any money. Hope Mills was ruined beyond a
+peradventure, and the affairs of the bank were best wound up as speedily
+as possible. There could be no large stealings for a receiver,
+consequently no occasion for delay. The sooner the wrecks and _débris_
+were cleared away, the quicker the moral atmosphere would be purified.
+There are wounds for which the instant cautery means life, the careful
+hesitation death.
+
+And now every one looked at the exploded bubble in surprise, and cried
+angrily, "What has become of the money? Yesterday we were rich: where
+has it gone to? Six months ago we had twenty per cent dividend: why are
+these stocks worthless now? Why have railroads and shops and mills
+ceased to pay? What sudden blight has fallen over the world?"
+
+Alas! There had been no money. Sanguine credit had traded on the honor
+and faith and nobleness of man toward man, and, behold, it had all been
+selfishness and falsehood and dishonor. Truth and virtue had been
+scorned and flouted in the highway, because forsooth there was a more
+brilliant semblance. Like a garment had men wrapped themselves in it,
+and now it was but rags and tatters.
+
+There could be nothing extracted from the wreck of Hope Mills. Indeed,
+Fred would have given up a rich inheritance to save his father's honor,
+had it been his. To go on at Hope Terrace was madness. The fires and the
+servants would cost enough to maintain a family. Mrs. Minor and Fred
+quarrelled because Mrs. Lawrence had been persuaded to mortgage the
+place: she simply groaned and moaned, and wondered why they must worry
+her about every thing!
+
+"I hope Irene will have the good sense to marry abroad," said Mrs.
+Minor. "And, Fred, what a pity you haven't a profession! What can you
+do?"
+
+Last winter it had been, "my brother, De Woolfe," whom all the young
+ladies in Mrs. Minor's set were wild over.
+
+Fred gave a sigh.
+
+"I suppose I _can_ do something to earn my bread," he replied bitterly.
+
+"Fred," began Agatha suddenly, "there is that Miss Tillon. You know how
+absolutely wild she was over you last winter! Her fortune is all in her
+own right, and it is a solid one too. Hamilton has had occasion to know
+about it. You cannot do a better thing than marry her."
+
+Fred glanced up. His sister was in sober earnest. To be bargained off
+like a woman, for a bare existence! Miss Tillon was at least thirty, of
+a suspicious, jealous turn of mind, well-enough looking perhaps, but
+narrow, with no intellectual culture, no approval of any thing beside
+her money. He had been amused at her preference. Possibly she might
+marry him, and rescue him from the pains of poverty. And he?
+
+He might be vain and trifling, but he was not sunk so low in cowardice.
+His face flushed a vivid scarlet.
+
+"I am not quite prepared to become chargeable to a woman yet," he said
+in a cold, calm voice.
+
+"What nonsense! Some man will marry her, and get the money," Agatha
+retorted decisively.
+
+"Not much of hers;" in a dry, contemptuous tone.
+
+"You know what I mean. She will live in style, and travel; and her
+husband"--
+
+"Will be the laughing-stock of his friends," interrupted Fred angrily.
+"No, Agatha, I will be dependent upon no one for my bread: if I cannot
+earn it I will starve."
+
+"Oh, very well!" with a scornful smile. "I only hope Rene will be wiser.
+They are in Paris--I heard from Gertrude last week. She was very much
+shocked, of course. I hope George has not been foolish enough to let
+every thing slip through his fingers. Who could have believed that
+Horace Eastman would turn out such a swindler! Papa trusted him
+altogether too far. It does not answer to be too noble and disinterested
+in this world."
+
+Fred made no reply to this charming bit of worldly wisdom. His delicate
+and high opinion of self had received a crushing blow. Married off, out
+of hand, to save him from poverty!
+
+Why should his thoughts turn to Sylvie at that moment? Something stirred
+within him, an insane desire to win her--oh, mad enough, surely! He
+could, he _would_, do something! There was all his education and talent;
+yes, he really had talent. He would make himself famous. She should see
+that he had the right kind of stuff in him. He would climb up the hard
+hill in his lonely, sorrowful, proud way, until she, looking on, would
+come to repent her unjust verdict!
+
+He shut himself up in his study, and made some very fair translations
+from his beloved poets. There were better ones, doubtless; and, after
+all, fame might not lie in that direction. There was physical science,
+much in vogue, and entertaining: no doubt he could do something in that
+line. There were theories and speculations, there were old
+philosophies--surely the ground was rich everywhere.
+
+It was very poor at Yerbury, though there were theories enough. But,
+when you took them for temporal meat and drink, they were not a
+fattening diet. Men lounged in the streets and on the corners, or, worst
+of all, in saloons, talking themselves angry and hoarse over the bad
+luck, and blaming every one right and left. Women sat at home, and cried
+over losses and crosses, cooked their scanty dinners, and retired to bed
+early to save fuel. The poorer ones went out to a day's washing, glad to
+get that. Boys played cards, read dime-novels, and dreamed of wonderful
+fortunes at the West: some few stout-hearted chaps set out to seek
+them.
+
+There were panaceas. Mr. Rantley preached the rankest communism and
+broadest free-thinking. Capital, i.e., money, was the tyrant of the
+world, and always would be until the laborers of the world rose up and
+claimed their rights. Why should this man starve when the man over
+yonder had his store-house full of flour that he was holding for higher
+prices? What right had he, except the might? So long as men were allowed
+to hoard up these monstrous fortunes, they could control the market, and
+would! What were the starving thousands to them? What if half the
+provision in the country rotted on the owner's hands? he could get as
+much or more money for the other half. What if the miners were at work
+only a small portion of time? could not the amount of coal be managed
+more easily, and prices kept up? Capital desired to keep production at
+the lowest ebb, because it could be more conveniently mastered. The only
+remedy was to give every man a chance, to break up these colossal
+fortunes, to have no great mills and mines; to have smaller capitalists,
+fewer hours of labor, to divide the immense hoards among the poor and
+needy until there should be no more want or suffering!
+
+The Rev. Mr. Bristow shook his head at this modern anti-Christ. Every
+thing was anti-Christ, with Mr. Bristow, that went outside of his own
+narrow creed. He preached some stirring sermons. It was God's judgment
+upon them for their sins. They had forgotten him, they had been led away
+by false gods; they had made golden calves, and worshipped them; their
+sons had strayed into infidelity; their daughters had flaunted in gay
+attire, with plaiting of the hair, and dancing away their immortal
+souls; and now they must return to their God, to the meat that perisheth
+not, to the bread of life, and to the well of living water. There must
+be such a returning to God, such a revival of religion, that the world
+would be swept clear and clean out of its old sins!
+
+"Splendid sermon! splendid sermon!" said Deacon Boyd, rubbing his hands
+together unctuously. "Parson's hit the nail just on the head. We've all
+strayed out of the way. I think a good old-fashioned revival'll set us
+straight sooner'n any thing. Nothing like coming to the Lord on the
+spot! This very week we ought to begin."
+
+"I think you're right, Deacon Boyd," said grave Mr. Rising. "I, for one,
+will take hold of the work."
+
+They called the church together, and began. I will not disparage the
+work. There were hungry souls that seemed fed with spiritual food,
+aching hearts that were bound up, reckless minds that paused on the
+verge of desperation. But there were others who wondered, even in the
+midst of the deacon's prayer, how it was that the Lord warned him to
+draw his twenty thousand dollars out of Yerbury Bank a week before the
+failure, when there were only he and his wife to keep, and let poor Mrs.
+Wharton with her five helpless children lose her husband's
+life-insurance, her little all, by putting it in the bank just a
+fortnight before the failure. Special providences, whereof Deacon Boyd
+discoursed so eloquently, happened oftener to the rich than to the poor.
+
+However, they prayed and fasted and repented. To many, any strong
+emotion that took them out of the wearing round of thought was a
+blessing.
+
+Jack Darcy, with a curious disbelief in every thing, went the rounds,
+and dropped into Maverick's office to talk it over. Sylvie was not home
+this winter: she and her aunt spent it in Philadelphia. Then Jack grew
+dull and restless. If the end of all things had come in Yerbury, he
+ought to try some other place in the great world.
+
+It was settled presently quite by accident. A cousin of Mrs. Darcy's,
+one of your strong, thorough, energetic women, came to spend the winter
+with them; and Jack's mother, watching the throes of her son's soul, a
+little afraid of socialism, materialism, and all the other isms,
+proposed that Jack should take a journey West or South, and have a
+glimpse of the men and things beyond this narrow boundary.
+
+"Grandmother grows feebler all the time now; and, being past ninety, we
+can't expect to keep her much longer. Of course, Jack, when she is gone,
+I shall have no tie but you; and, if it suited you to settle elsewhere,
+I should not object. You are young and ambitious, and I ought to think
+of your advancement. There never has been a time since your poor
+father's death that you could be so well spared;" yet the mother sighed.
+"And you have been a good son, Jack: you have given up many a wish
+cheerfully to two poor old women."
+
+"Don't call yourself an old woman," said Jack almost gruffly, then he
+stooped to kiss her.
+
+His heart gave a great boyish bound.
+
+"Good-by, old Yerbury!" he cried exultantly one morning, quite sure of a
+new, glad life elsewhere.
+
+"Though I shall be sorry to leave Sylvie and Maverick," he thought.
+"These old towns do grind the very soul out of a fellow who has any
+desire or energy in him. The world isn't all alike, I know," giving his
+chestnut mane a toss like a young, mettlesome colt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+IF Jack Darcy had taken his tour for pure pleasure and enjoyment, the
+time was ill chosen in every respect. Winter was bad enough; but an
+unprosperous one, full of financial clouds and storms, and scurrying
+drifts of distrust, was not calculated to make the way brilliant.
+
+But he had one glorious enjoyment to begin with. He went straight to
+Niagara, and took his first glimpse of it in its awesome majesty of
+frost and ice. From that high exaltation we call worship, through every
+intermediate degree and sense of beauty, to that of a delicate and
+minute fairy dream. The winter sun radiating glowing tints, with skies
+of sapphire and opal, the great stretches of wordless wonder, bound hand
+and foot like some old Norse god amid his ice-fields; the one night when
+a full moon silvered it with prismatic grandeur, and made of the
+glittering ice-crystals entrances to diamond-mines of fabled genii,
+touching him weirdly with this unearthly splendor; and the next solemn
+day, when the very sky seemed chilled to unfallen snow, and the
+ice-caverns turned a dull blue, reminding him of descriptions of polar
+scenery, and filling his soul with a sense of boundless solitude.
+
+Then he began his tour of the cities. He had taken some books along,
+whether to perplex or make clear his brains, he hardly knew. He pored
+over pages of Adam Smith, he turned to Ruskin for comfort, he picked up
+Brassey's figures and experience, and Stuart Mill's strong, kindly
+reasoning, and digested them in his own slow, practical, much-befogged
+way, trying to solve the problems.
+
+It was a great and wonderful world. Little Yerbury had hardly any true
+idea what a mite she was, when one looked at the immense labor-fields of
+the West and apparently endless resources. Yet there was the same
+depression out here. Shops and mills closed, for sale, and to let; some
+running on three-quarter time, with half the number of workmen, others
+going on at ruinous competition; anxious, moody-eyed men walking the
+streets, or grouped on corners, their coats and hats shabby, their
+beards untrimmed, old boots and shoes with the heels tramped over at one
+side, or a bit of stocking showing through the leather. "No man hath
+hired us," said their despondent faces plainer than any words. Young men
+and boys offering to do any kind of work for any kind of pay, sleeping
+in station-houses; relief-stores, church charities and soup-houses,
+homes for the friendless, and all such places, filled to overflowing,
+and new hordes crowding in every day.
+
+Yet there seemed to be no lack of money. It lay in banks, it went
+begging for good security. Where was there any good security? Every inch
+of ground, every building, stocks and furniture, were covered by
+mortgages. Stock companies trembled in the balance, and went down like
+card-houses. Everybody wanted to sell every thing, but there were no
+buyers. Everybody wanted to work, but there was nothing to do. Everybody
+was in a chronic state of grumbling; there was no profit to be made in
+farming, in manufacturing, in any thing. There had been too much
+over-production, for which every one blamed his neighbor. The great
+warehouses were full of grain, the mills loaded up with iron, the
+factories full of cloth and flannels and cottons; and yet people were
+going hungry and in rags. It was puzzling and painful. We had bought too
+much abroad, and sent the money out of the country, the balance of trade
+would make it all right again; there had been over-production, and now
+there must be a vigorous repression; there had been too much
+speculation in real estate; there had been too great an accumulation of
+capital in the business centres; we were fast verging to the state of
+older countries, where there were the few rich and the many poor: there
+was a surplus of labor, and was there not also a surplus of people?
+
+There was another sad side to it all, that made Jack's heart ache. These
+young men and boys tramping through the country, begging or worse,
+swearing, telling foul stories, herding together anywhere, corrupting
+one another's morals, smoking, drinking,--somehow they managed to obtain
+these indulgences,--looking furtively out of languid, sodden eyes, their
+faces hard and worn, their voices coarse and gruff; and they were to be
+the next generation of what?--loyal and honest citizens, or jail-birds?
+
+It was not all so sombre. At five and twenty a healthy, unwarped nature
+is many-sided. There were countless marvels to see and to study. He
+stumbled over people who had known Mr. Lawrence, and who had a kindly
+feeling for a Hope Mills man. And he had done something more in the last
+eight years than merely learn how to make cloth. He had dipped into
+chemistry, and knew a little about dyes; he had studied up in grades and
+kinds of wool, and was interested in labor processes. With fresh
+opportunities he looked into it more closely, observed new methods of
+decreasing waste, or saving labor. He was a well-informed,
+well-mannered, sensible fellow; and occasionally some one would say of
+him, "A smart, long-headed chap, that! The world will hear of him some
+day, or I am mistaken."
+
+He kept looking about for some place where, if the world did not hear of
+him, he might get a chance in some enterprise where he could take a few
+steps upward. There certainly were more men than places. The world was a
+bee-hive, surely; but alas for those who swarmed out in such times as
+these!
+
+After he had gone as far West as Minnesota, he went down the
+Mississippi to a different kind of civilization in the quaint old
+cities. It was none the less heart-sickening. He found traces of the
+war, that we had almost forgotten, fresh at every step; still it seemed
+as if the hand of Nature was much more bounteous than at the bleak
+North. Yet Bishop Heber's old missionary hymn rang continually through
+his mind. Even amid the Florida orange-groves, and the great
+cotton-fields, some cause brought about baleful results, in the unwisdom
+of man.
+
+Then to the cities of luxury and thrift, where wealth was strong enough
+to crowd poverty out one side, where art and music and cultivation made
+a subtile atmosphere that somehow recalled the Lawrences. He lingered
+and quaffed delightsome draughts, and at last tore himself away from
+seductive sights and sounds. In a dim, half-defined way the delights
+came to him. Would he ever be stoic enough to spurn them?
+
+Last of all, home with its sweet welcomes, its cleanliness and order,
+its familiar furniture and cheerful fires, its easy-chairs and quaint
+fragrant air, as if every thing had lain in dried rose-leaves; the
+mother love and tears, the smiles out of dimmer eyes, and cousin Jane
+Morgan's hearty greeting; to say nothing of his delicious supper and his
+own bed, where sleep seemed awaiting him with open arms.
+
+His mother had written a good deal of Yerbury gossip to him, but it had
+been mostly of the pleasant order. When he dropped into Maverick's
+office the next day, and was welcomed so heartily that it was like a
+brother's greeting, he listened to the other side. Affairs were worse
+than ever. The bank had gone into liquidation, and would pay about forty
+per cent. Property mortgages had been foreclosed right and left; there
+was nothing, scarcely, doing; there had been want and misery and
+sickness, and now diphtheria was raging.
+
+"So you see the revival didn't do every thing," said Maverick grimly.
+"I'm of the opinion, if some of them had preached less, and distributed
+bread and broth with a freer hand, it would have been more of a good
+work. The praying would be well enough in its place, and, for those old
+fellows who pray on a full stomach, very enjoyable, I dare say. But I'd
+like them to look after their drains and their wells and their cisterns
+before they ask the Almighty to sanctify these afflictions to the poor
+wretches who suffer from them. And now, Jack Darcy, what are you going
+to do? Have you found better pastures?" and Maverick glanced up with
+curious inquiry.
+
+"No," replied Jack, rather reluctantly it must be confessed. It seemed
+to him now that he had been spending his time for nought, unless
+pleasure counted, and he felt a trifle ashamed of it.
+
+Maverick gave an odd little laugh that puzzled the other.
+
+"See here, Maverick," began Jack in such earnest that he blushed like a
+great boy, "I haven't found any new place for myself. The world seems
+just full and running over. The great cities have their own men out of
+employment, and hordes from every other place. I'd be almost ashamed to
+ask for a job. I declare, I'd rather raise as much of my living as I
+could in our back garden, or take Perley's farm, and put it together,
+and set men raising strawberries, than tramp round, asking for work,
+with a feeling that it was taken from some one who had a better right,
+who was a native of the soil."
+
+"Then you have not lost your conscience?"
+
+"I hope not. It is the same old story everywhere. What is to be done
+about it?" and Jack knit his brows. "I have been going over the books
+that I thought would help or let in a little light on the matter, but it
+is a wisdom hard to get at. How to make more work in the world, how to
+cheapen living, how to"--
+
+"Bring about the millennium! What dead earnest you are in, Darcy!"
+
+"Weren't you in earnest a moment ago, Maverick, when you talked about
+the praying and the bread and broth?" said Jack with a great knot drawn
+in his brow.
+
+"Yes, Heaven knows. And some one must take hold of the thing who has
+eyes to see, and brains, and--and money. You see, people have crowded
+into cities and towns, and if they could be sent out somewhere! Why
+don't we organize colonies or something of the sort? Now, there's
+Florida. Living is cheap, and in such a climate there are fewer needs of
+clothing and fuel. I have been wondering why the big dons in cities did
+not gather up the poor they have been feeding at soup-houses and
+everywhere, and send them out with some one to manage until they could
+stand alone. There would be less diphtherias and fevers and starvation;
+for that's its right name, Darcy. What can you do when one's system is
+all run out with meal-mush, and weak tea that is half willow-leaves, and
+such trash? There's Kilburn--he has had the name of being good to the
+poor this winter because he has given them trust at his store. Such
+stuff! I have looked into a few samples," and the expressive nostrils
+curled in disgust. "He makes an enormous profit, for he sells the
+poorest kind of goods to these people at the highest prices. Then he
+manages to get hold of something, house or furniture, or maybe
+clothes,--I don't know. He and Deacon Boyd--Darcy, how can a man honor
+religion when these two men are its exponents? So good to the poor! Pah!
+It makes me sick. Isn't there a cleaner air somewhere on God's earth?
+Can't they be taken out of this?"
+
+"If they could be! There must be one way out, Maverick: better, perhaps,
+than going West where thousands are tramping about. And Heaven knows
+they need a new factor in civilization down there!"
+
+The young eyes met in sudden hopeful animation. Had they solved even one
+strand of the great tangle, that worse than Gordian knot which could not
+be cut?
+
+The door opened slowly; and there entered a middle-aged, rather grizzled
+man, with shaggy eyebrows, sparse beard, and bent shoulders. He glanced
+in hesitatingly, his eyes wandering down to Darcy.
+
+"I declare to man!" and he stared hard, with the door-knob still in his
+hand. "Jack Darcy! I heard you were home. How d'y do? How d'y do?" and
+he wrung the hand warmly. "I'm powerful glad to see you," and he looked
+him slowly over, from head to foot. "Why, you've grown, or something!
+What a great giant you are!--Morning, doctor," nodding rather
+incidentally to Maverick. "So you've had a long tramp, Jack? Your mother
+brought some of the letters over to my old lady, who has been rather
+poorly the last two months. Why, you could set up book-writing! Well,
+what's the good word? Can't be like Yerbury all over."
+
+"There are too many towns full of idle people, if that is what you mean.
+But it was splendid, Cameron! I have one more dream,--to go up and down
+the Western coast, and over the Rocky Mountains; but I want to digest
+this first. I have no fancy for mental dyspepsia," and he gave a good,
+wholesome laugh.
+
+"The right way, Jack," nodded Maverick, with a shrewd twinkle in his
+eye.
+
+"Well, you've come back to a dull place,--a dull place," and Cameron
+shook his head despondingly. "We used to be main proud of old Yerbury;
+but--is the whole world to go on and starve to death, with such crops,
+and such an abundance of every thing?"
+
+"We are going to weather it through, Cameron," Jack answered with a
+stubborn hopefulness. "There have been hard times before that have ended
+in renewed prosperity."
+
+"Yes. There was '57; hard enough, Heaven knows, with the banks going to
+smash everywhere. It ruined my father. And way back in '37, when there
+was such a wild-fire about real estate, and it came out just as this
+has. Do people ever learn by experience, Maverick?" and the man gave a
+short, unmirthful chuckle. "You could buy up half Yerbury to-day, for
+taxes and mortgages. I can't, for the life of me, see how it all came
+about. And that it has gone all over the world,--well, human nature in
+England or Germany can't well laugh at human nature in this
+country.--Are these things like cholera and fevers, doctor, taking a
+clean sweep once in a while?" and Cameron gave a twist to the end of his
+faded beard, as if he might wring the secret out of it.
+
+"We have learned to manage the cholera, and see in it, not a
+dispensation of Providence, but the natural result of filth and greed
+and carelessness. Darcy and I are getting up a panacea now," with a
+bright little laugh. "But how is Mrs. Cameron? Is her medicine out?"
+
+"Yes;" and Cameron drew a phial from his pocket. "You don't think it
+would do to stop here? She's pretty well, I should say;" and he fingered
+the bottle as if he were debating whether to have it filled or not.
+
+"No. She must go on. She is getting her strength back nicely; but it's
+bad policy to stop at three-quarters of the race,--eh, Cameron? The
+first warm day I'll take her out driving."
+
+While he was talking, he reached out for the bottle, and began
+compounding. Cameron nodded an acknowledgment of the last sentence, then
+turning to Jack, said abruptly,--
+
+"What was the scheme, Darcy?"
+
+Jack flushed, and glanced at Maverick.
+
+"Emigration, the old remedy," answered the doctor. "England has tried
+her hand at it pretty successfully; so why shouldn't we? Only we need
+not go out of our own country. There are thousands of acres of
+productive land lying idle, and thousands of people starving, or worse.
+Too many here,--not enough there."
+
+"Where to?" Cameron asked laconically, his face unmoved by any ripple of
+enthusiasm.
+
+Jack seemed to be put on his mettle by it. Lack of faith in him always
+roused his belligerent qualities, back in the old school days.
+
+"Yes, Cameron," in an incisive tone, looking steadily out of his
+determined eyes. "The cities are crowded over and over, and full of
+tramps, and the West swarms with them. We need not imagine we have all
+the idle people here at the East. But farming there has come to be a
+business of great things, almost as bad as manufacturing. You must have
+money, or the big fellows will swallow you up. But we were talking of
+Florida. No winter, as one may say; and your house a simple matter, your
+fuel, your clothes, a mere nothing. You could hardly starve if you
+tried."
+
+Cameron came back to his chair, pushed it out from the wall, planted
+himself deliberately in it, and tilted back, pushing up his old felt
+hat, as if he did not mean to have his vision obstructed. Then he gave
+his beard another twist.
+
+"Can you tell me why this is, Jack Darcy? Here are countries with fine
+and lovely climates, where every thing grows to your hand; yet they
+always seem to lie idle: Italy and Spain and Turkey and South America,
+and our own Gardens of Eden," with a bit of sarcastic smile. "The very
+ease of living seems to take the ambition out of one. Well, why
+shouldn't it? Even the bees, you know, were demoralized when they found
+they did not have to lay up for winter. Wouldn't those people come to be
+worse tramps and idlers? I'm sure the poor white trash of the South has
+helped itself very little."
+
+"We were talking of concerted effort," interposed
+Maverick,--"purchasing a large tract of land, forming a community,
+taking different kinds of workmen, and making a success of it. Why
+should we not have flourishing towns in Florida, as well as in Kansas?"
+
+"To be sure, to be sure!" nodding his head and tugging at his beard in a
+manner that showed he was not a whit convinced. "Then you give up," he
+said, "that any thing can be done at home?"
+
+"Any thing done at home?" Jack lifted his level brows, and stared a
+little.
+
+"Yes. The going away may all be very well. I tried it in '57; went out
+to Indiana with a little money, and tried farming that I didn't know any
+thing about, had the ague six months, and then came back poorer
+certainly. Now, the thing is just here with a good many of us,--we have
+our little homes, and in such times as these, in any hard times, we
+couldn't sell for any thing worth while. Then there's many a thing, to a
+man or a woman past middle life, that can't be reckoned in dollars and
+cents: the home you've made for yourself, the old friends, the church,
+even the familiar street you've walked over so often that every
+flagstone comes to have a near look."
+
+"But those who have no homes, no strong interests"--
+
+"If I was going to found a colony, I should want a little better stock,"
+with a short, dry laugh.
+
+"May be you have a plan?" suggested Maverick good-naturedly.
+
+"Well, I've thought it over a good deal this winter, sitting in the
+house with the old lady;" and there came a peculiar far-off look in
+Cameron's eye as he studied a figure in the carpet. "If God worked
+miracles nowadays, and was to make a dozen or so honest men with a good,
+stout share of brains, there might be a little lifting-up of the dull
+skies. Take this town, leaving out politics and all that sort. Five
+years ago we were prosperous, and there wasn't a prettier town anywhere
+about. Good wages were paid, people were thrifty; and I will say it for
+David Lawrence, if he was one of your high kind, he was a gentleman.
+I've worked for him fifteen years steady. Then the Eastmans came in, and
+there was nothing but hurry and drive, grumbling about high wages,
+buying cheap wools, and if cloth was poor, blaming the men. Then wages
+went down and down, and, when the men stood out, the scum of all the
+places around was brought in. Yerbury improved, and beer-saloons
+multiplied. Houses were thrown together and sold; and now they're all
+falling apart, and standing empty, and half a dozen families are
+crowding into one miserable tenement. Who made the money? Was it high
+wages that ruined Hope Mills, and wrecked Yerbury Bank?"
+
+"You have hit the truth somewhere, Cameron."
+
+"Those men were thieves and swindlers; and I suppose to-day they're
+living on the fat of the land, milk and honey thrown in. See here, I'm
+not an educated man, but I have a little common sense. Suppose we'd been
+let to go our ways quiet like,--the farmers holding on to their farms,
+and making two blades of grass grow where one grew before. Wasn't that
+some old philosopher's advice? Suppose David Lawrence hadn't built that
+great palace out on Hope Terrace (he was a plainish man himself), and
+there had been five or six beside him making a moderate share of money.
+He's lost all his great fortune, there's seventy thousand or so gone
+somewhere, the bank has smashed with thousands more of everybody's
+money, with nothing much to show but trumpery mortgages; there's no work
+and no money, and a howl goes up that there has been over-production.
+Not over-production of honesty, I take it."
+
+Maverick looked at the little earnest man, and laughed a hearty,
+cheering sort of laugh that was like pouring oil into a wound. Jack
+stared with wide-open eyes.
+
+"I've been to hear Rantley two or three times,--he's going about
+lecturing, you know,--but I don't see as he has any very good plan for
+getting work on its legs again. Then I've listened to the parson this
+winter, to please the old lady; and he is sure all this is a judgment
+for our sins. Seems to me, judgment went a little askew: why doesn't it
+touch Eastman and such fellows?"
+
+"Has nothing been done?" asked Jack. "I have heard no business gossip
+for the last three months. Can't it be proved that he was a defaulter?"
+
+"Perhaps it could. The old lady was reading the other morning about the
+scapegoat being sent into the wilderness with everybody's sins on his
+head; and I guess they'd rather have _him_ off somewhere, and pack the
+trouble on him. He might tell too much if he was here. They couldn't get
+the money back, even if he has it; but no one ever will believe that
+David Lawrence profited by it. That money belongs to the people of
+Yerbury, who have earned it, and saved it; and I say thieving and
+roguery have more to do with hard times than 'surplus of labor.' The big
+men have taken the money that belonged to the little ones."
+
+"None of the Lawrence estate has been settled, I suppose?" asked Jack.
+
+"Every thing is for sale. The mortgage on the big house is to be
+foreclosed, also on the mill I believe. I declare to you, Darcy, it
+makes my heart ache to see those dumb spindles, and the great silent
+engine standing like a mourner at a funeral. Come now, why should Hope
+Mills go to ruin, and Yerbury fall to pieces, while you and Maverick go
+and build up Florida? Wouldn't the money and the energy do something
+here?"
+
+Cameron's eyes looked out of their overhanging thatch with a puzzled,
+thoughtful expression, as if there must be a solution to the mystery.
+
+Jack was startled. Building up Florida looked feasible, but building up
+Yerbury--
+
+"Then you will not go with us?" said Maverick with a half-laugh.
+
+"I've my little home clear of debt, and a trifle at interest; and over
+in Yerbury churchyard there are two graves dear to me and my old lady.
+It would break her heart to leave them. And sometimes, Maverick, I thank
+God, that I've no sons to grow up tramps or worse. No, I'll stay here,
+and fight through somehow."
+
+They were silent for several minutes, each one tugging at the knotty
+problem. Then Cameron rose, reached out for the phial of medicine, drove
+his slouch-hat down over his forehead, and walked toward the door.
+
+"Drop in and see us, Jack, after you have thought it over a bit.
+Mother's always had a warm corner in her heart for you.--Morning,
+doctor;" and, nodding, he closed the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+JACK and Maverick glanced at each other, a long, searching, questioning
+glance.
+
+"Given twenty or forty moderate fortunes, instead of the one great one,"
+said Jack slowly.
+
+"And you have a greater amount of general prosperity and happiness."
+
+"Co-operation," continued Jack.
+
+"And now, if you don't mind, you may take a walk with me," said
+Maverick. "Office-hours are over, and I have some rather serious cases
+on hand. Jerry's gone lame, stuck a nail in his foot, so I console
+myself with pedestrian theories."
+
+"All right. I may need a pilot."
+
+It was a mid-April day; but spring was late, and every thing looked
+bleak to Jack after his Southern sojourn. Certainly it was quite
+different from the trim little town of Jack's boyhood. The blight of
+poverty and thriftlessness had fallen upon it. There were piles of
+refuse in the streets, still half frozen; there were muddy stoops and
+shabby hall-doors, and broken area-palings, and now and then a window
+patched up with paper or rags. For though there may be much high
+theorizing and preaching on the two or three exceptional men who have
+lifted themselves out of dens of poverty, and come through great
+tribulation, there are thousands who work out nothing but blind
+destruction and utter shipwreck, and who in frantic efforts for
+salvation drag down those nearest and dearest, as a drowning man may
+clutch at his own brother.
+
+"Not very inviting," apologized Maverick; "but I have two calls to make
+here in Boyd's Row,--old rookeries that ought to have been pulled down
+long ago, but I suppose they still bring in Boyd considerable. I have
+made a complaint about the drains: they are enough to breed a
+pestilence. Tom Byrne has three children down with scarlet-fever. Two of
+them will be carried out presently, but I hope to save the little girl.
+No--I won't take you in."
+
+"Tom Byrne--he was a mill-hand. And I know his wife well. Yes,
+Maverick." And Jack followed him.
+
+It was a two-story cottage with three rooms on a floor, and two families
+occupying it. The Byrnes were up-stairs.
+
+The two beds were in the front room, for the middle one was dark. There
+was a well-worn carpet on the floor, and the furniture very poor. Jenny
+Byrne had sold her best to pay the quarter's rent in the last place
+which they had left the first of January, the landlord preferring it
+should stand empty. Her little savings had been swept away by the bank
+disaster: there was no work, and three children to feed, except that
+Deacon Boyd found Tom sufficient employment to pay his rent.
+
+On one bed close by the window lay the little girl, heavy-eyed and
+crimson. The elder boy had come to the stupor that precedes death, the
+other was restless with a half delirium. Jenny Byrne's round rosy cheeks
+had vanished, and her eyes had a distraught look, the lurking fear of
+coming woe. She stared at Jack a moment, then stretched out her hand,
+but as quickly withdrew it.
+
+"Did you tell him, doctor? O Mr. Darcy!"
+
+"Yes. He _would_ come."
+
+She wiped away some tears with the corner of her faded apron, then
+answered a question of Jack's. What could he say to the poor thing?
+Surely she had done her duty with truest endeavor; and Tom Byrne was a
+very fair average man, liking his daily glass of beer, but rarely going
+farther.
+
+"Can you fix a bed in the other room, and put Kitty in it?" the doctor
+asked. "She is better, but I would rather have her out of here."
+
+"And Jamie is better too?" she questioned, with tremulous eagerness.
+"His fever is nearly gone, and he's having such a nice sleep"--
+
+"Sleep is the best thing for him," returned the doctor briefly. "About
+Kitty"--
+
+The mother's wan face flushed. She came close to Dr. Maverick, her eyes
+downcast.
+
+"The coal gave out this morning, and I've no fire there," she said just
+above a whisper. "The relief-store is closed"--
+
+"Yes, yes; I'll see to it;" with a nod. "I will be in again"--looking at
+the sleeping child--"say about four." Then he changed the medicine for
+Kitty, and gave one or two orders.
+
+Jack thrust a bank-note in Jenny's hand, with his good-by. "Tom will be
+so glad to see you, Mr. Darcy," she said, with an effort at calmness.
+
+"Can nothing be done for them?" asked Jack, as they regained the street.
+
+"No. Jamie had gone too far when I was called in. Larger rooms, fresher
+air, nourishing food: that's the secret of a physician's success in many
+cases. Poor little ones! He will not go through the night. Now, Jack,
+you are not to come in here, positively. Stand in this breeze, and blow
+the scarlet-fever out of your clothes."
+
+He did as he was bid, and, getting tired, tramped up and down. How much
+of man's selfishness and dishonesty there was in this! If the time could
+ever come when the mists and fogs of complacency would be swept off,
+and we could see that it was the innocent suffering for the guilty, not
+that these poor souls were sinners above all men, as the self-righteous
+Pharisee preaches!
+
+Maverick rejoined him with a grave face, then the two went down Main
+Street. Houses to let, stores and shops closed, and those open but
+half-stocked, and wearing a listless air. If three hard years so told on
+the place, and there was no prospect of better things, what would it be
+in five or ten? Was it some such misfortune that had overtaken those
+grand and luxurious cities of Oriental lands?
+
+"Where are the Lawrences?" Jack asked presently.
+
+"Well, I really do not know. I think I did hear that Mrs. Lawrence had
+gone to New York. The young man"--
+
+Jack held his breath, and there was a strange flutter at his heart.
+After all these years he saw again the pale, handsome child who had
+given him a boy's ardent love.
+
+"I have a fancy that he will not amount to much. Queer idea that of
+Cameron's, wasn't it, Darcy? Who was it that first preached or wrote of
+the 'duty nearest one'? Of course things cannot stay this way forever,
+they must mend; and maybe if some one took hold to help mend
+them--Cameron's idea is not a bad one. Maybe the same amount of money
+and energy expended here would be productive of good results: still I
+hold on to Florida for my poor and wretched suffering ones. But it is
+worth thinking of. Here, let us turn round by Hope Mills."
+
+Jack was silent. "Hope Mills!" It rang through his brain like a chime of
+bells. Of course he knew that Mr. Hope had given them his name; but had
+he builded better than he knew? Was it indicative of something greater
+than the power of one man,--of many men? of strong, earnest endeavor;
+of truth, honor, and honesty; of thrift, and happy, jocund industry,
+once more?
+
+But now it was very silent. The great yard had an untidy look, with some
+piles of weather-beaten lumber, and old _débris_. The windows were
+covered with dust; the broad stone steps showed where the winter snows
+had fallen and melted, leaving streaks of dirt, and more had blown in
+the corners. No cheerful creak of the great engine; no vapory puffs of
+smoke circling skyward from the chimney; no whir of looms. It saddened
+one inexpressibly.
+
+"It is a big subject," said Jack slowly. "I've been puzzling my brains
+half the winter with what wiser heads than mine have said about capital
+and labor,--Mill and Brassey and Howell, and our own men, with soft,
+sweet bits of Ruskin, and savage bits of Carlyle. I don't know but
+Carlyle was right when he said, 'The beginning and the end of what is
+the matter with us, in these days, is, that we have forgotten God.'
+Cameron said it another way,--honor and honesty. Because, certainly,
+honor appeals to all that is noblest in human nature,--to chivalry, and
+tenderness and thought for others; and nothing ever prospered, in the
+long-run, that did not have a substratum of truth."
+
+"Well, according to Bristow, we came back to him this winter--not I,
+Darcy, I don't make any pretence,"--and he shook his head with slow
+gravity. "But I was interested in the revival on psychological grounds.
+I had never been so inside of one before. Bristow is a good man, no
+doubt; but it is just the one chosen way with him,--strong crying and
+praying, and believing yourself a sinner above all men, and then a
+sudden peace and happiness, and a courage to endure,--a blind,
+unreasoning courage to take the present as it is, because God sent it,
+and it must be for the best. Boyd and Whitlow and Kenny were the great
+lights. They went about from house to house; they exhorted and prayed.
+Whitlow was one of the old bank-directors. Strange to say, he did not
+lose a penny. His money was in government-bonds; and now he has
+persuaded Yerbury that if his advice had been taken there would have
+been no trouble. Whitlow discharged his man this winter, and took in his
+place a half-grown boy. Mrs. Whitlow sets a good example to her class by
+discharging one handmaid and making the other do double duty. Yet, so
+far as I can find, Whitlow is a richer man than he was three years ago.
+Kenny keeps his factory open, and gives the men three days' work in the
+week, and pays them in poor shoes, as much as possible; and takes out a
+good deal in high rent. Boyd, who has the name of being the greatest
+saint of all,--does what? Opens that miserable row of houses, that he
+couldn't let on any terms, and takes in tenants who are willing to work
+out the rent. He gets good prices, too. Is he losing on them? Faugh! the
+very term of charity makes me sick. And this winter he purchased a good
+deal of the stock of the relief-store. Wretched flour; miserable,
+adulterated stuff of tea; pork, some of it that wasn't fit to eat; and
+cheap butter, that every one would have been ten times better without. I
+went to him one day, red-hot, in a sanitary view of the business; and he
+preached religion to me,--his kind. 'Boyd,' said I, 'there's Keppler's
+saloon, your own property, paying you a good income, no doubt, in these
+hard times, adding to the want and misery of Yerbury faster than your
+whole church can save. If you are in earnest, go break up that den of
+iniquity!'"
+
+Jack laughed. "What did he say to that?"
+
+"Meekly, that Keppler had a lease for five years, and was going on the
+second. The man is so honorable, he cannot break faith with his
+fellow-man, forsooth; but he breaks faith with God, in a serene,
+untroubled manner." And Maverick's lip curled scornfully under the
+fringe of moustache.
+
+"But there must be some gold, or the counterfeit would not be so
+successfully received. We have had so much false money everywhere, that,
+since we can make that pass, we do not trouble ourselves. And yet,
+Maverick, there _is_ something in it that you and I don't see clearly
+yet; but we cannot teach it acceptably until we can show better fruit.
+And, when leaders of all kinds, in high places, show that self only is
+at the bottom of every thing they do, it seems hopeless to demand that
+the class below, watching them, and suffering from their wrongdoing,
+shall attain a higher moral status. How can they help following coarsely
+in the footsteps of their betters?"
+
+"Darcy, suppose you turn parson!" and Maverick laughed half quizzically.
+"See here: the world wants a very old sermon preached again to it,
+hammered into every fibre, put up over every doorway,--the essence of
+all knowledge, all religion, briefly comprehended in this, 'Love thy
+neighbor _as_ thyself.' You won't need gown or bands for that work. Not
+to have one code of morals for the rich, and one for the poor; one creed
+for Sunday, and quite another belief for Monday; to have no lofty,
+impossible theories and exalted moods, but truthful, honest living; not
+to push away the miserable, ignorant souls, but take them by the hand in
+hearty co-operation. Maybe Cameron has the right clew. Why should we let
+human love be shamed by such things as an Oneida community or a Mormon
+city?"
+
+The strong, earnest voice stirred Jack like martial music. All these
+years he had been struggling with a great, blind, confused
+something,--perhaps it was not a silver-mine or a railroad, but a work
+just here in the town of his boyhood, where he was known, where he had
+played and worked.
+
+"Seventeenthly, and lastly," and Maverick looked at his watch, "I cannot
+idle any more time upon you, and must cut short with a 'To be
+continued.' We will talk it over again and again; and, if we cannot get
+it into shape, there is still Florida left. So, while you are dreaming
+it out by this great silent mill, whose prisoned spirits should prate of
+prosperity instead of desolation, I'll run my course around Yerbury, and
+we'll compare notes over our cigars. _Addio_," waving his hand.
+
+Jack watched the compact figure as it moved briskly away; then he
+sauntered round the mill, down one street and up another, strolled out
+to Lovers' Lane, and returned by Larch Avenue. The Barry house began to
+show signs of life, for old Mat was clearing up the grounds. This was
+the one oasis that had not been bitten by speculation. He thought of
+winsome little Sylvie, and one summer evening when Irene Lawrence
+stepped into that pretty, cosey room with the grace and beauty of a
+Juno. Where was she now? And what was Fred doing? Making a great leap
+into name and fame, doubtless, now that he was put upon his mettle. The
+old boyish freaks came back to his mind, the enthusiastic unreasoning
+adoration, the last tender parting. An intense and subtile sympathy
+filled his soul; and, though he smiled a little, the memory was very
+sacred.
+
+The texture of Jack's mind was not of the quick, brilliant, or sanguine
+order. He went over his books again; he ruminated as he cleaned the
+garden-paths, spaded the beds, trimmed the trees and shrubbery, and
+attended to the odds and ends known only to a careful householder.
+Cousin Jane was in her element out here; and they two discoursed of
+farming and gardening, and industry, she in a sharp, trenchant way.
+
+She had remarked incidentally that her visit was near its end. Now that
+Jack was home, cousin Ellen would not need her.
+
+"I don't see why you should not make your home here, cousin Jane,"
+replied Mrs. Darcy. "Grandmother grows feebler all the time, and you
+have quite spoiled me by your strength and cheeriness. You have no
+nearer tie; and if you _could_ content yourself with us--Jack was
+speaking about it a few evenings since. We should like so to keep you,
+cousin Jane."
+
+Jane Morgan studied the beseeching eyes a while, then dropped her own,
+and thought.
+
+"Very well," she answered, "if you like to have it so. While I am well
+and strong I think I ought to do enough somewhere to earn my living, and
+not use up the little laid by for a rainy day. If you and Jack are
+agreed, we'll consider it a bargain for a year. I like to be settled
+about what I'm going to do: there's nothing so uncomfortable as hanging
+on tenterhooks. When my visit's through I like to go, if I'm going; not
+stand an hour or two with the door-knob in my hand."
+
+Jack was delighted. They could spare him now and then of an evening to
+stroll down to Maverick's office, where they discussed pretty nearly
+every thing under the sun. It was so in the beginning,--"the earth was
+without form, and void." Then the Barrys returned; Sylvie changed in
+some indescribable way as to a kind of delicate outside manner, but the
+same fresh, earnest girl in heart and soul, taking up her friendship
+with Jack just where she had laid it down. Yet they had both grown
+broader and richer in nature and experience, and there was something of
+the subtile flavor of new acquaintanceship.
+
+Yerbury cleaned house, even to the tidying-up of streets and
+carting-away of rubbish. It was pitiful to see the attempts of some of
+the poor women, who washed their worn white curtains, scrubbed the
+shutters and hall-door, and set out a few ragged geraniums in the front
+yard, or made a little bed of lettuce and onions.
+
+Yerbury Savings Bank was in the hands of a receiver. Some sold out their
+small accounts for a trifle: it was agreed there could not be much in
+the way of dividends. Here was a great mortgage on the Downer farm,
+that the Eastmans had partly cut into city lots. And, though Downer had
+received a large price, he was a poor man to-day, with no business, and
+several sons tramping the highways for work. Farms had not been
+profitable, but had the wealth and extravagance produced any better
+result? These places around would be sold presently for any sum they
+would bring.
+
+"Speculation did look so tempting, though," said Jack with a humorous
+smile. "But for grandmother I might have been in the midst of it."
+
+"There's just one thing that makes a man or a country rich," said Jane
+Morgan incisively; "and that's industry, good, honest labor. Marking up
+one's goods before breakfast, as the Frenchman did, realizes no absolute
+money. The speculators jingle their dollars from hand to hand, until
+some poor fool, attracted by the noise, gives them a hundred for their
+twenty. When a man makes money simply by another person's loss, he has
+not created any thing, or made any more of it; and the world's no
+better, that I can see."
+
+"Cousin Jane, you are dipping into political economy;" and Jack nodded
+gayly. "I shall have to ask Maverick and some of the others up here; and
+maybe you can put in a straw, or a head of wheat, toward the
+regeneration of Yerbury."
+
+"I dip into a little common sense now and then, and it seems to me
+that's what the world needs. There is no lack of the uncommon kind, and
+it's not to be altogether despised, since at times uncommon things are
+given to people to do. But, if all the bees in the hive thought they had
+a call to be queens, it runs in my mind there'd be a lack of honey
+presently."
+
+"You are on the right foundation, cousin Jane. We must not only make the
+honey an honorable thing, but honor the bees, put labor on a better,
+truer foundation."
+
+"I should just say, 'See here, my friends, it is not possible for us all
+to be rich, whether it is some fixed immutable law of fate, or the lack
+of necessary elements in one's character, or the meeting of the right
+person with the right circumstances; but the fact is there, true as
+judgment. You can be comfortable and clean if you have the energy; and
+it is better to scrub your own kitchen-floor, or raise a bushel of
+potatoes, than to sit and whine about luck or respectability. Now and
+then a ready-made fortune drops down upon one, and I don't know but it
+often brings a curse: anyhow, what you work for, you are pretty sure to
+enjoy.' It makes me mad when I see healthy, hearty young women sighing
+for servants and pianos and what not; when their grandmothers, who had
+as good blood, and as good sense, didn't despise honest work."
+
+Sylvie Barry came in while Miss Morgan was in the midst of her "speech,"
+as Jack declared it to be; and now she clapped her small white hands,
+with a "Bravo!"
+
+"A new disciple, Jack," and she smiled. "Miss Morgan, we shall set you
+to reading our favorite authors, and solving the tremendous question.
+Where can we get work for these to do? For a great many stand idle in
+the market-place, because they have not been hired. What can we set them
+at?"
+
+"Well, Miss Barry, I don't know much about the big, outside questions;
+but, going around Yerbury a little this winter, I shouldn't say the work
+was all done up; or, done in such a poor, thrown-together way, that it
+tumbles right to pieces again. There's skewy, ill-made beds with ragged
+counterpanes; there's shreds of old ingrain-carpets, that you fall over;
+there's broken chairs, and shabby clothes, and dirty corners,--work
+enough, I should say, to last some woman an hour or two. She might get
+out her pieces of calico, and, with the children's help, make a new
+spread, maybe a tidy apron, and she might braid a rag mat out of bits,
+and a hundred things that go toward comfort. No: all the work isn't
+done up yet, Miss Sylvie," and Jane Morgan stopped just then, to knit
+the seam-stitch in a stocking for a poor body.
+
+Sylvie threw herself on the footstool, and leaned her arms on Miss
+Morgan's knee.
+
+"I wasn't thinking so much of that when I spoke," she began earnestly;
+"but I do wonder if some of us couldn't take it up. There are
+art-schools, and music-schools, and cooking-schools, in the great
+cities; and why couldn't we start something of the kind here? Poor
+people--the real poor, I mean--are often wasteful and idle because they
+do not just know how to be any thing else. They buy cheap garments in
+stores, and they soon come apart. I had a sewing-school last summer, and
+I found some mothers didn't seem to care whether their children learned
+or not,--since there was so much sewing done by machines. But if the
+mothers could be taught a little"--
+
+"That's about the upshot of what I said. You see, Miss Barry, people
+have been earning so much money of late years, that sewing has gone out
+of fashion. It didn't pay to do this or that, so they earned and spent.
+Now they sit listless in their dirt and rags, bemoaning hard times. It
+is good to know how to do more than one thing," and Miss Morgan nodded
+her head confidently, her strong face full of earnestness.
+
+"Why can't you and Sylvie start a school--what shall we call it?--of
+useful and homely arts? You see, the girls do work in the mills and
+shops until they get married, and then they do not know how to make the
+best of their husbands' money. But don't crowd out all the beauty and
+the pleasure; there must be something to enlist the heart. Give a man an
+interest in a thing, and you awake a new feeling, an enthusiasm that
+makes every thing go as smoothly as oiling up machinery."
+
+"I have often thought," said Mrs. Darcy in her soft, gentle voice,
+"that the poor did not get as much good of their money as the better
+classes, because they never have enough to buy advantageously, and
+store-keepers so often take the advantage of them. Now, yesterday I was
+over to Mrs. Hall's, and the poor thing was trying to make some bread,
+and she was not fit to stand up and knead it; so I thought I'd try. The
+flour was heavy and sticky and lumpy, and what I should call very
+unprofitable. No one could make good bread out of it. She said they
+traded at Kilburn's, because he would wait if they did not have the
+money. The flour was seven and a half a barrel; the eighth, ninety-five
+cents; and I do not believe the bread was fit to eat. So you must
+remember, when you blame people for poor cooking, that they may not
+always have decent materials to work with."
+
+"Maverick was growling about Kilburn the other evening. It is a shame
+that he should sell such poor goods, when prices have come down a good
+deal."
+
+"Can you not reform him a little?" and Mrs. Darcy smiled.
+
+"Cousin Jane and Sylvie might go into business, as did the poor weavers
+of Toad Lane, with their sack of oatmeal, firkin of butter, a little
+sugar and flour," said Jack laughingly. "A fair division of labor. The
+men of Yerbury shall provide work, and the women shall train the
+inefficient how and where to spend money."
+
+Sylvie glanced up with bright, inquiring eyes.
+
+"Was it some more co-operation?" she asked.
+
+Jack brought out his book, and read the story of the "Equitable Pioneers
+of Rochdale" and their wonderful success from a small beginning. The
+girl listened with wide-open eyes, and even Jane Morgan laid down her
+knitting.
+
+"The queen-bee and the workers again," said she, as Jack closed the
+book. "It is not every man for himself, but every man for each other.
+And it comes back, always."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+"WHERE is grandmother?" Jack asked one morning late in May, as he came
+in from the garden, and found her place at the table vacant.
+
+"She does not feel very well this morning, and I told her there was no
+need of rising with the lark," answered cousin Jane; but, though her
+voice was cheerful, there was a new gravity in her face.
+
+"It is something unusual"--
+
+"She is getting to be an old lady, Jack. There, sit down to your
+breakfast while it is nice and hot. No fear but what I will attend to
+grandmother."
+
+She had risen; but in the midst of her dressing her hands had lost their
+cunning, her limbs their strength. Jane came to look at her in alarm.
+
+"It's a warning," she said, with her grand old smile. "But I have no
+pain, and so you can leave me here for a while. My strength may come
+back."
+
+Mrs. Darcy was much frightened.
+
+"Remember that ninety-four is a good old age, and she has hardly had a
+sick day in her life. After breakfast Jack might go over for Dr.
+Maverick. He is sensible, and will not torment her with experiments."
+
+Jack rather hurried through his meal, and then ran up to grandmother's
+room. She put out her wrinkled hand, thin to be sure, but still slender
+and smooth, with no knobby joints. A proud sort of beauty illumined the
+old face, though the eyes were a little dull.
+
+"Dear boy," and there was a curious quaver in her voice, "I've had to
+give in at last. The Lord knows best. He has given me many a happy year
+with you; yet I have never forgotten the folks over yonder. I shall be
+glad to see them again,--your father, Jack, and the rest. 'Then they
+came to the land of Beulah, where the sun shineth day and night, and
+betook themselves to rest'--you know. We used to read it together."
+
+A sharp pang went to Jack's heart. He pressed the limp hand to his lips,
+and gazed into the face that had changed in some indescribable way. Then
+Jane came with a tempting breakfast, and fed her with wonderful
+gentleness, it seemed to him.
+
+He went out, and brought Maverick back with him.
+
+"It is a general breaking-up of nature," said the doctor with a tender
+gravity. "Nothing can be done, unless she should suffer; but I do not
+think she will. It is the way lives ought to end oftener. Give her
+whatever she will take; and keep cheerful, all of you. After all, it is
+only a little journey."
+
+"Where?" the young eyes asked as they met each other in solemn mood.
+
+Jack scarcely left her. She liked to open her eyes, and find him sitting
+there, when she would smile faintly, and murmur a few words. Sylvie and
+Miss Barry were the only visitors admitted to her room. They used to
+read out of "Pilgrim's Progress," the book she had loved so well, and
+occasionally they sang some sweet old hymn.
+
+"Jack," she said once, "you will find everything in my old box there in
+the bureau. It was my mother's, and came across the sea with me. You
+have been a good lad. You took your father's place with me, and you must
+never regret that you staid here to make an old woman happy. You have
+been a good lad--a good--little lad"-- And her mind wandered to other
+years.
+
+Just growing gradually weaker, and falling asleep peacefully. A long,
+well-spent life, and a death to remember and desire.
+
+They buried her in Yerbury churchyard, and the townspeople turned out to
+do her honor. Jack thought of another death, and the almost solitary
+state of the funeral.
+
+How good it was that they had Jane Morgan now! She carried them right
+along.
+
+Jack opened the brass-bound box, still fragrant with its sandal-wood
+lining. Some old letters, the trinkets she had saved from her poverty,
+and a will bequeathing her all, in government bonds, to Jack.
+
+There was nearly seven thousand dollars. With his own little savings he
+felt quite rich.
+
+"Jack," said his mother, "all these years you have waited patiently, and
+put by your own dreams. Do not think that I did not notice the struggle.
+It was very generous and kindly; and I am glad, for grandmother's sake,
+that you staid. But now if you like we will go somewhere else, and make
+a new home"--did her voice tremble a little then? "I am still young
+enough to take root elsewhere, and cousin Jane is so energetic she helps
+one to new life. There may be prettier and more prosperous places, and
+you have years before you in which to realize a fortune."
+
+He glanced up at the face bending over him, instinct with the honorable
+grace of middle life; the hair with a few threads of silver; the soft,
+fine skin showing some wrinkles about the eyes and two or three light
+creases across the forehead; the cheeks out of which roundness had
+vanished, and the lips the scarlet of girlhood, but though both were
+pale the mouth was still tender and sweet. A womanly woman,--that seemed
+to him a perfect description of his mother, a woman who had loved three
+generations, and held by them. Now for his sake she would give up the
+old ties, and try a new world,--this shy, shrinking, loving woman.
+
+What would she leave? She had never known any other home in her married
+life, though this had been changed and improved since her wedding-day.
+Everywhere some trace of his father. The porch with the roses climbing
+over it, the great maples in the street, planted by him; the odorous old
+balm of Gilead, that he had hunted up because she had cared for it, and
+they had one in her old home; the trailing clematis with its shining
+smilax-like green, and its heliotrope fragrance; the white rose that had
+been planted on the morning of Jack's birth, and had sent up many
+generations from the old root; the latticed summer-house with its wealth
+of grapes; and almost like a vision Jack could fancy he saw the tall
+figure and deliberate step,--the sweet ghost of memory that could never
+walk in any other place. Did his mother have such dreams?
+
+Yes, there were better things to life than mere money-getting.
+
+"I believe those were the wild dreams of boyhood,"--smiling a
+little,--"the 'long, long thoughts of youth.' I used to want something
+that would occupy my whole soul and every energy, that was stirring,
+earnest, absorbing, and held a grand outlook. But I think"--very
+deliberately, as if he were weighing every word--"that my work has come
+to me, instead of my going out to seek it. At all events, I shall not go
+away for the present."
+
+"Well," she returned, but she could not keep the great gladness out of
+her voice.
+
+Having thus made his election, Jack Darcy looked sturdily about to see
+what was to be done, and the best way to do it. He asked two of the old
+over-lookers, Hurd and Bradley, to meet him at Maverick's office; and
+there they discussed co-operation until long past midnight. They looked
+into the cotton-mill connected with the Rochdale experiment; they read
+up the workings of those at Oldham and Lancashire, of the industries in
+France, and banking in Germany.
+
+"Here we are," said Jack, "with so much of our lives spent in learning
+to manage looms and turn out different kinds of cloth. People must wear
+clothes until the millennium, and cloth will be made. It seems to me
+that it must be a good thing to identify the workmen, and get their real
+interest. We should avoid strikes on the one hand, the continual
+disputes about wages, and be much less at the mercy of all outside
+influence. The men will understand thoroughly that industry, economy,
+thrift, and perseverance is good for each individually; that he is using
+these qualities not only for the master, but for himself. There will be
+better work, and more of it."
+
+Hurd seemed to be taking the measure of Darcy through this speech. Now
+he said,--
+
+"Darcy, any man who knows enough to head such a business as Hope Mills,
+knows enough to carve out a fortune for himself; and my opinion is that
+he would be a fool to let the chance slip."
+
+"A man may have the knowledge, but not the requisite capital," was the
+patient answer. "Then he might think"--
+
+"Well, you've a sight of faith, that's all! Your men will go on with the
+tramp of soldiers in good times; and when the pinch comes, then look
+out! If they were educated, reasonable, sensible; but you and I both
+know the mass are not. It will do better in the old countries, for there
+children expect to follow in the footsteps of their parents; but here,
+where every boy looks upon himself as a possible president, it cannot be
+done. It has been tried, and has failed. It will again."
+
+"Then you will not join?"
+
+"I don't say that, Darcy. I can't very well get away from Yerbury: if I
+could, the Lord knows I'd go. But there--it is just as bad everywhere
+else. Don't be too sanguine though: you young chaps build air-castles
+easily."
+
+Bradley wrung his hand warmly at parting. "I want to look into this
+thing a little more closely," he said. "I believe you have struck the
+keynote. Whatever raises the workman raises the whole world. If you get
+him to be self-supporting, there is one less pauper or tramp for the
+State to take in charge, and tax all other workingmen for his support."
+
+"I rather like the scheme of the co-operative store," Hurd began
+presently. "There's a sight of money somehow between the producer and
+the consumer. Farmers are grumbling all the time. I wrote to my
+brother-in-law last spring about trading for a small farm, and going
+into poultry-business perhaps; and he sent back a list of prices he had
+obtained for his produce. Butter twenty-five cents, and we paid forty
+this winter. Milk two and a half cents a quart, while ours is from eight
+to ten."
+
+"Transportation to be counted in," suggested Maverick.
+
+"The thing discouraged me, so I thought I'd hold on a bit, since I did
+not know the first rule for farming. As Darcy says, we have spent all
+these years perfecting ourselves in our business, and it hardly looks
+reasonable that we should succeed at once in something altogether
+different. If you don't mind, Darcy, I'd like to look over that Rochdale
+experiment a little at my leisure."
+
+Jack handed him the book, and the small party dispersed. In a week they
+met again, with two more, one a stubborn old Englishman who had been in
+the business. They had done very well for a while, then the market
+flattened. They could not hold their stock, so the big fish swallowed
+them up. That was always the end where you had no credit and no reserve
+capital. Truth to tell, Jack began to realize how hard it would be to
+convert some of the very men he would like to have.
+
+Meanwhile Hamilton Minor came up with some capitalists, and Hope Mills
+was put up at auction. They looked around the town, examined the
+building and machinery, which was the best of its kind; but nobody
+could tell whether we had reached bottom prices or not, and, though the
+place was to be offered at an immense sacrifice, they were wary. Empty
+mills and rusting machinery were not profitable investments. Mr. Minor's
+eloquence went for nothing. These long-headed dons would rather hold on
+to their money, though they expressed a good deal of sympathy for the
+Lawrence estate.
+
+"I do believe it will go for the face of the mortgage," said Jack to
+Maverick that evening. "Twenty thousand dollars, and a year's interest
+and taxes. Twenty-two thousand would cover the whole thing; and three
+years ago Mr. Lawrence wouldn't have looked at fifty thousand. Maverick,
+I can get together ten thousand of my own, and if there was one other
+person"--
+
+"We will hunt him up," returned Maverick hopefully. "There is the
+reputation of the cloth already made, which is one great step in your
+favor. Yes, it must be done."
+
+Yerbury was looking a little brighter and better at midsummer.
+Scarlet-fever had pretty well disappeared; but malaria had come in its
+stead, convenient name for want of nourishment, stagnation, and
+despondency. The haggard-looking wives and mothers went out to a day's
+washing or scrubbing; but the children, better off, roamed over the
+fields in search of berries or a stray ownerless fruit-tree, laughing
+and happy in their rags and bare feet.
+
+Darcy tried two or three pretty well-to-do men, that he fancied had the
+good of the town at heart; but the project looked wild to them. If David
+Lawrence couldn't stand up against hard times, no new men could. He,
+Darcy, had better put his money in government-bonds, and live on the
+interest. Nothing could be made in such times as these.
+
+"It seems as if one half of the world has decided that the other half
+should starve," Jack declared in a discouraged tone. "No one is willing
+to start the ball again. If it wasn't for mother I would risk every
+dollar of my own. And then to think of the land lying idle about
+here,--enough to feed half the town! I do not wonder that we are fast
+coming to beggary and ruin."
+
+Maverick was pretty sober for several days, then he went off to
+Narragansett Pier; "tired of my everlasting badgering," said Jack to
+Sylvie, who, poor child, had her hands and heart full of projects that
+she talked over with Miss Morgan and her aunt, and did not make much
+more progress than Jack.
+
+So it happened one July evening that Jack sat smoking on the porch in a
+rather despondent frame of mind. Miss Morgan and his mother had gone to
+make some neighborly calls.
+
+A quick step came down the street. "If Maverick wasn't in Rhode Island!"
+thought Jack; then it came nearer, with a little halt, and Jack sprang
+down the steps in the moonlight.
+
+"Hillo, old fellow!" said the rich, laughing voice. "Have you looked
+after my patients, and entertained my office-callers, in my absence?
+That would only be fair play, for I have been about your business; and,
+by Jove! succeeded too!"
+
+"Maverick!" There was an odd little tremble in Jack's voice.
+
+"Ask me to sit down, and stay me with--well, a pipe, for I have finished
+my last cigar. I came in the train just fifteen minutes ago, and
+skulked--that's the very word--under the trees and through by-ways, lest
+some one, seeing, should lay violent hands on me. Yes, get out your best
+armchair, old chap, and treat me like a prince."
+
+The two seated themselves again, and stretched out their legs to the
+porch-railing. The soft light fell around, outlining here and there a
+bit of vine as if it were held against a silver background. A few early
+insects were chirping, and somewhere down the street there was a waft of
+distant music.
+
+"Succeeded!" Jack drew a long breath.
+
+"Yes: with a woman too. Nay, you need not look at me so wonderingly. I
+have not sold myself for base gold to the Evil One," laughing lightly.
+"I have never told you much about myself; for, like the needy
+knife-grinder, 'story, God bless you! there was none to tell;' but there
+is a chapter now, and you must hear it first. My mother was left an
+orphan in her infancy, and her aunt adopted her. She was a canny
+Scotswoman, by name Jean McLeod. She was very good to my mother, who
+married quite to her liking, although my father was not rich, but we
+always lived in a certain style, and my father had a fine reputation as
+a lawyer. My mother's death, the result of an accident, so prostrated
+him, that he never recovered from the shock. Aunt McLeod came to stay
+with us through that weary time. Then she took us both to her heart and
+home: it was a large warm heart and a beautiful home. My father left a
+little: it was made over to me; and my sister, five years younger than
+I, was brought up properly, and married properly, and lives in Chicago
+in elegant style. Then Aunt Jean tried her hand on me, chose a suitable
+young woman, and insisted that the fates had decided it. The upshot was
+a quarrel. Not but what the girl was nice enough, and all that, but I
+did not care to marry; and so I walked off to Europe, and was there
+three years. Some rather cool letters passed between us at first, but
+they grew warmer; and when I returned it was winter, and she was in New
+York. I went straight up to her house. She was very glad to see me; and
+there in her lovely library, all glow and softness and perfume, by the
+side of the grate, with a screen in her hand, sat Anastasia Lothrop. She
+is Aunt Jean's pet _protégée_, though she has home and lands and people
+of her own. A handsome woman too, by Jove! However, we have gone our
+separate ways. I think she (Aunt Jean) was rather annoyed at my settling
+at Yerbury.
+
+"Well, I went to Narragansett, and found her alone this time; and she
+has promised to buy Hope Mills. I do believe there's no end to the
+woman's money. She talked it over as a mere bagatelle. I am to meet her
+in New York, and you are to go down, Jack; and we are to see the holder
+of the mortgage, and do no end of business. I think she is rather
+interested in the scheme, and I do believe she is delighted to do me a
+favor. Now you can keep your money for a kind of reserve fund. The mere
+savings of labor will not answer at first, you know."
+
+Maverick drew a long breath then, and puffed lustily at his cigar.
+
+"I don't know how ever to thank you."
+
+"Don't thank me, Darcy. You see, I am interested in this experiment. I
+want to see if there is enough faith and honesty and industry and
+trustfulness left in the world to make such a general partnership a
+success. You know it has been said that since the war our character as a
+whole has degenerated fearfully. Politically there is no doubt of it.
+Commercially and industrially are still open questions. If we could
+succeed in making one hundred people comfortable, instead of one rich,
+nine comfortable, and the other ninety next door to pauperism, we shall
+have done something. If we can so educate ninety men that they are able
+to understand the difficulties and embarrassments of carrying on
+business and its numerous fluctuations, we shall have raised them higher
+in the social scale. And it is most sadly true of all the large failures
+of late, some one has been dishonest, some one or two or three have
+taken other people's money to speculate with. It should be called
+stealing as much as when a poor man takes it, even if he spends it for
+rum. And, Darcy, we will keep our eye single upon one thing: we shall
+not move the world, or convert it, but haply one little corner of
+Yerbury; while all the wit and wisdom the world has been saving up for
+ages will be hurled against us in different shapes, from puffy snowballs
+to the grim old fellows soaked in water and frozen hard. And sometimes I
+think, with all the energy you are going to bring to bear upon this, you
+could carve out a fortune somewhere else."
+
+"I don't know as to that, Maverick," said Darcy in a half-funny,
+half-sad tone. "From New York to St. Louis, from thence to New Orleans,
+to Florida, and back here again, I never found an opening. Two or three
+people did promise to write to me, but they have not. I felt the world
+could go on quite as well without me and hundreds of others. So, then,
+the only thing is to create a place; and Heaven knows I shall try hard
+enough to make a success of this."
+
+"And you will do it too: I'm not afraid. Give us your hand, old chap! I
+never swore friendship with but just one fellow: that was in my college
+days, and I have his note for one hundred dollars as a memento. I might
+have been keener, I dare say; but one of the transcendentally lovely
+things of youth is its perfect faith. These preternaturally wise and
+prudent young people come into the world mentally gray-headed. But I do
+it now with my eyes wide open; and, when you are a rich man, I have
+another scheme I want to take through, a sort of home or hospital of my
+own planning: so don't fancy I shall let you off easy."
+
+They held each other's hands in a long, lingering clasp. Beside the
+warmth and magnetism that was a component part of Dr. Maverick's nature
+when he chose to use it, which was not nearly always, there was a
+steadfast kindliness, the vigor of a true and pure manhood, that made a
+clear atmosphere about him, in which insincerity, weakness, and
+selfishness seemed to flicker into pale shadows, and shrink away from
+the intense mental light he turned upon them.
+
+And just here the vision of the boy face came back to Jack, the
+strangling arms about his neck, the fluttering breath and quivering
+lips, and the sound of the rather thin, childish voice,--"You are _my_
+King Arthur, and I shall love you my whole life long."
+
+The sadness in the smile was for the old ideal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+"THE telegram!" exclaimed Maverick ten days later, striding down the
+garden where Jack was at work in the strawberry-bed.
+
+Jack Darcy flushed like a girl, through the other fine coloring of
+labor. He had hardly dared to believe in and hold to Maverick's promise.
+Manlike, neither had spoken of it since that night.
+
+"'Thursday, at four, at the Westminster.' That is to-morrow. We must be
+on time, or she would never have any faith in us; and, though my credit
+may be _nil_, yours must be"--
+
+"As I hope to keep it through my life," was the grave reply. "You will
+take the morning train?"
+
+"Yes. It will give us a trifle of spare time, which won't be bad for a
+couple of overworked fellows like us. But I must look after a lot of
+people this afternoon, and if I can I will drop in this evening."
+
+Jack went back to his strawberries. He had been making a mental
+calculation about an acre, and the profits thereon, moved to it by
+something Jane Morgan had said. Twenty miles below them, on Swanston
+Bay, which was quite a summer-resort, the hotel-keepers had paid
+twenty-five cents per quart for nice large berries. On their little
+patch they had raised a hundred and twenty quarts. There was another
+side to the labor-question,--diversity of industry. Jane's idea of a
+great fruit-garden, or call it a farm, was not bad. You could crowd ten
+such patches in an acre of ground. If nothing better came to hand, he
+might hire some of the ground lying waste around Yerbury, and set the
+idle at work.
+
+Sylvie came through with some flowers in her hand. Jack looked up again,
+and laughed, and threw himself on the grass under a tree, chatting
+gayly. He felt so light at heart! She wondered a little, and then,
+without knowing the cause, rejoiced with him in the depths of her soul.
+
+The two men started the next morning, and at the appointed time were
+ushered into Miss McLeod's private parlor. Maverick had said, "She's a
+little queer in some ways; but in the main you will like her, I think."
+Meanwhile Jack had formed a dozen ideals of her, based mostly on the
+personal appearance of Miss Barry and his grandmother.
+
+The door of the adjoining room opened, and Miss McLeod entered. An old
+woman, of course, and a fashionable woman, but with a young-old face and
+figure. Not the graceful airiness of youth, so often painful in its
+desire to impress the beholder with what it is not, but an old age to
+which all the good things of life, rightly used, have contributed, and
+brought about a delightful result. She was of medium height, and
+possibly had not been handsome in her palmy days; but she challenged
+one's respect for a true and honorable womanhood, and an old age neither
+inane, querulous, nor servile.
+
+A rather plump figure, with deep chest, full shoulders, and erect
+carriage. The face was wrinkled; but the skin had a peachy softness, the
+lips were still full and finely curved, and, though the mouth was rather
+wide, it indicated resolution and decision. The whole contour of the
+face was slightly aquiline, the forehead high and broad, but the curling
+hair falling over it in the requirements of fashion softened it; shining
+silvery white, curling naturally, and very abundant, the coil at the
+back partly covered with a diamond-shaped bit of elegant black thread
+lace that matched the barb at her throat. Her rich, soft, steel-colored
+silk made no rustle as she crossed the floor, but the diamonds in her
+ears and on her breast flashed a glitter of sunlight about her.
+
+Maverick greeted her with pleasant but not effusive warmth, and
+introduced his friend. They skirmished on the boundary-line of small
+talk for a while, Jack feeling that he was being measured and gauged at
+every possible indication of the real man, but his honesty of purpose
+kept him steadfast.
+
+Presently Maverick plunged into the business part, much to Darcy's
+satisfaction.
+
+"I wrote to my lawyer, Mr. Hildreth, about it," Miss McLeod replied. "He
+has seen the parties holding the mortgage; and, on account of business
+embarrassments, they are extremely anxious to realize upon it. Mr. Minor
+is naturally desirous of having it sold at an advantage; but he is on
+the bond, and has been making continuous efforts with no success. No one
+can tell how low property will sink, business property especially, that
+depreciates so rapidly if neglected. The mortgage is considered
+one-third of what the property was valued at seven years ago; but we
+have all shrunk a trifle since that," with a shrug, and a curious little
+bend of the head, as if the decapitation was not altogether a pleasant
+process. "This is the 4th of August, and on the 19th it is advertised
+for sale. There may be one chance in a thousand of a better purchaser;
+though Mr. Hildreth thinks no one but a lunatic, or a woman, would put
+money in such an adventure," her lips curving in their bitter-sweet
+smile. Indeed, there was nothing she was so much like as a cluster of
+bright bitter-sweet berries, on a sharp but sunshiny autumn day, with
+the leaves and tendrils brown and faded, but the brilliant life and soul
+still shining from the ripe centre. She impressed you with the same
+defiant glow of exultation.
+
+"I have money lying idle, it is true," she continued; "but I want to
+hear your plans before I decide, Mr. Darcy. Philip," nodding to her
+nephew, "has interested me in this scheme; but I must know what it
+promises before I take the risk."
+
+Jack was confused a little by the bright, penetrating glance; and he had
+not quite overcome his boyish trick of blushing. Often as he had gone
+over the plan with Howell, Fawcett, and other political economists at
+his tongue's end, all his troupe of fine ideas seemed to desert him. He
+laughed at his own embarrassment: she smiled and nodded, and that made
+them friends.
+
+"I don't know that I can put it any better," he began earnestly, "than
+to say that I want to take up the lever of work, and put the wheels of
+labor in motion, to bring the starving workmen and the halting capital
+together again. It is all very well for us to rush every dollar into
+government-bonds; but if there is no business, what is to augment our
+revenue, and where then shall we be finally, with our mills and
+workshops shut up, and our people begging? If I had enough of my own to
+bridge over the chasm, I would ask no one's help," he went on a little
+proudly. "The mills at Yerbury stand in sad silence, with ruin before
+them; our men are idle and dispirited, turning into tramps and
+vagabonds, because they hate to sit still and starve. And here am I, of
+no real use to the world, and the eight years back of me that I have
+spent in perfecting myself of no account either, unless I find something
+upon which to employ my ability and training. If I purchase the mills,
+we must hire capital to work them with, and everybody would be shy of
+us. We can get together the capital if we could be sure of the place for
+five years, at a moderate rental."
+
+"But would not a joint-stock company answer the purpose better, and
+carry more weight?" she asked, listening with a sort of intent wariness.
+
+"I want to enlist the workmen, so that we shall be reasonably sure of
+co-operation in other things beside money, industry, thrift,
+faithfulness, and a common interest in success. If times are hard, we
+shall all make sacrifices: if they improve, we shall benefit by the
+earnestness of our endeavors. Maverick and I have made a little draft,
+based on the workings of the best French and English societies. If you
+will look it over"--and he took it out of his memorandum.
+
+She studied it with a keen, rapid glance.
+
+"It is what I should call an industrial partnership," Darcy continued.
+"We _should_ own the mill; but, as we cannot, that must go in the
+working expenses. As the men choose, and are able, they can hold shares;
+but at present this will be obtained--say from a dozen perhaps. Nothing
+now will bring in twenty or even ten per cent, and we must be satisfied
+with whatever we can make. We have had our good times, and now we must
+take the evil; but if there is any better way than sitting down
+resignedly, and folding both hands, I, for one, want to find it."
+
+She was taking in the combinations of emotion and purpose that flitted
+over his face. A man who would do something if he could get that hardest
+of all things, a foothold to stand upon.
+
+"I think you might make more money," she said with pointed brevity.
+
+"Which would not be co-operation," with his frank, genial laugh that
+went to her heart. "I want to try the experiment. Not that I expect to
+solve all the difficulties between labor and capital; but I shall try to
+make them better friends, so that, when you have weathered a hard gale,
+pinching yourselves to keep on the workmen, they will not strike for
+higher wages on the first stir of improvement, as they will be certain
+of their share."
+
+"You are a philanthropist, Mr. Darcy. Can you depend upon the temper of
+your men? They may do very well just now when they are starving; but,
+when times improve, are they going to wait one year or five years for
+the sum they consider part of their wages? And if there should be no
+surplus, but losses, as has often happened in manufacturing? Your
+workman will
+
+          'Fork out his penny, and pocket your shilling,'
+
+fast enough; but when the tables are turned, what then?"
+
+"There _must_ be a different feeling when men are banded together in a
+mutual business interest. The very spirit of association appeals to what
+is best and noblest in human nature. As it has been in Yerbury, for
+example, the workmen contributed of their ability and strength to
+support one family in princely luxury, pay one extravagant salary, and
+several others that were out of all proportion to the wages earned, and
+an extensive defalcation. No one is at all the gainer now, unless it be
+the thief," his face scarlet with indignation at the remembrance of
+Eastman. "The men have been hit the hardest of all. No wonder they feel
+bitter and discouraged. We make many an Ishmael by sending him out with
+his jug of water, while there are feasting and revelry within."
+
+"But you cannot make all human nature noble or sensible or grateful.
+There is the grand co-operation of the forty years in the wilderness,
+when food was provided, and clothing lasted miraculously; yet under
+these favorable circumstances, and with the sure promise at the end,
+there was not a heavenly unity."
+
+Jack laughed heartily.
+
+"We must keep from golden calves and such folly," he said. "We are
+likely enough to have our waters of Marah. But it seems to me the best
+way to ennoble labor, give it its true dignity, and show the
+possibilities for the workmen, is concerted action. As matters stand
+now, few poor men can ever acquire sufficient capital to start any
+business; and perhaps this is not best when we consider the cost of
+machinery, and the ever-appearing new inventions. The small capitalist
+could _not_ compete with the large one. Yet capital often takes as its
+right the best strength of the workman, the years of maturity and
+ability, and throws him off in his old age. I know labor retorts by
+carelessness, wastefulness, and utter indifference to the employer's
+welfare. One is a machine to grind labor into money; the other, to grind
+all he can out of capital. Perhaps my design is Utopian, but it seems as
+if something ought to be done before we train a whole generation of men
+to be paupers and thieves. Better that we should spend our money in
+labor experiments than supporting poorhouses and prisons."
+
+Jack had lost his embarrassment now. There was a glow on his cheek, and
+a steady fire in his eye, the lines about the mouth sharply drawn, and
+indicating not only masterly strength, but a kind of pitying patience,
+that would never degenerate into sentimentality. It was a very manly,
+trusty face; and his sterling honesty impressed Miss McLeod, long
+trained to reading faces, while his sturdy good sense promised much.
+
+"I should like Mr. Hildreth to see this paper," turning it in her still
+supple fingers. "What if some of your men insist upon going out after a
+year or two, Mr. Darcy?"
+
+"There will be some kind of forfeiture, of course. The true business
+capital must remain intact the whole five years: the direct proceeds of
+labor may be subject to some changes, but in any event the business
+interests must not be jeopardized."
+
+There was a moment's interruption of a servant; then dinner was brought
+in, and arranged for three. The bright-eyed old lady made a charming
+hostess. She poured their tea with a quaint dignity, and made them feel
+quite as if she were dispensing hospitality in her own house.
+
+She was the kind of woman whom young people, past the lunacies of
+sixteen, invariably like. The feminine portion told her their love
+troubles, the young wives came to her with tangles and little
+jealousies; and, if she could not always straighten them out, she had a
+marvellous way of comforting. Young men drifted toward her by some
+species of magnetism, though she had none of the fussy motherliness of
+some old ladies. With faculties still keen and bright, a great fund of
+good-humor that had the sparkle of champagne rather than any insipid
+sweetness, she never wearied or palled on any one. She kept herself well
+informed of the world's progress, she knew of the principal stars in the
+literary, dramatic, and artistic world, and to be asked to her house was
+a compliment.
+
+The conversation was more general now; and, though Maverick had told
+every thing of note about Yerbury, she was not indisposed to listen to
+it again. They discussed the panic and its causes, and ventured upon
+guesses as to its duration. They all agreed that there had been too much
+haste to be rich, too much greed of speculation, too much personal
+greatness, and not enough national greatness. No generous striving
+together to build up what the war had pulled down, but every man for
+himself and for gold. If women had been frivolous and vain, and dazzled
+by the glare of newly acquired wealth, men had not been quite free from
+faults. The terrible lowering of morals, the dishonesty and fraud easily
+condoned, and laughed over as a kind of shrewdness, were sad examples to
+set before the next generation.
+
+In her way Miss McLeod was quite a politician, having been so much in
+that circle. Her views of men and measures were keen and discriminating;
+and her bits of trenchant wisdom quite dazzled Jack, who at the last,
+proposed laughingly, as his panacea, that every man should undertake the
+mending of himself, when the world would soon be righted.
+
+Afterward a coupé came, and they drove to the Park. There evening and
+the bonny new moon overtook them; but the streets and country roads were
+so inviting, they did not return until quite late.
+
+"Consider yourselves my guests for the night," she said as they drove
+back to the hotel, and Maverick was too wise to demur.
+
+"I have been thinking this matter over," she said as they were
+separating. "My part will be purchasing the mills, and I shall take so
+much in the shape of rent. I want you to consider what per cent you can
+pay, and not straiten yourselves too much. I frankly confess that I am
+greatly interested in you, Mr. Darcy; and as this young man," touching
+Maverick's shoulder, "prefers to 'gang his ain gait,' he leaves me quite
+free to waste my money as I like. Be fair to yourself. Good-night."
+
+"It's all right with you, Jack," began Maverick after they had been
+shown to their room. "Aunt Jean is a trump! I almost forgive her Miss
+Lothrop. But I suppose women would be less than women, if they did not
+want to dip their fingers into destiny. It is their mental chessboard."
+
+"But you do love her? your aunt, I mean."
+
+"Why, of course. Still, I should never dangle in any woman's train;"
+with a curl of the lip.
+
+Miss McLeod was going back to Narragansett the next morning. They
+discussed their last item of agreement; and Jack said, with modest
+decision, "that such real estate could not possibly pay more than three
+per cent to any owner in the course of the next few years. He would
+rather offer her that, and a share contingent on the amount of business
+done at the end of five years, than assume any greater risk just now."
+
+"Thank you for your honesty and your good sense," she replied. "If you
+had offered higher, I should have had some doubts of your financial
+clear-headedness. It will be an equitable bargain. And will you be kind
+enough to make some arrangements for me in Yerbury? I shall come on the
+18th, with a companion and a maid; and Mr. Hildreth will follow the next
+morning. Get your plans in shape by that time. I am glad to have met
+you, Mr. Darcy, and I wish you success in your undertaking."
+
+They shook hands cordially, and went their ways. Jack could hardly
+believe his good fortune, and now he was afraid some other parties might
+step in and take the mills.
+
+"Much likelihood," laughed Maverick.
+
+Jack took Cameron in hand first, as he had been the real suggester of
+the plan. He, Darcy, could use his ten thousand; and, if ten more could
+be subscribed, they would not need to hire outside. As time went on,
+this capital might be equalized and increased. Hurd offered two thousand
+and himself; and just then one of the old hands who had succeeded in
+getting rid of a good bit of property that had weighted him heavily, and
+picked up a little money here and there, subscribed five thousand.
+Yardley had none of his own, but persuaded his wife's sister to invest a
+thousand. The other, Miss Barry offered, if no workman came to hand.
+Winston was a handy Jack-of-all-trades. He could repair machinery, or do
+any kind of wood-work: he had sold cloth on commission, bartered and
+traded, and had a good deal of shrewdness and good sense, and pluck. He
+and Darcy would do the buying and selling; Cameron would take charge of
+supplies, deal them out, and see that nothing went to waste; Hurd and
+Yardley would be overlookers as before. Every man could weave his yard
+of cloth with the best. They would constitute the managing force.
+
+The days passed rapidly; and to Jack's great satisfaction no purchaser
+appeared, no curious soul even sauntered about the mills. Miss McLeod
+came at the appointed time, accompanied by Miss Lothrop, who was as
+distant to Maverick as if this were their first meeting. The ladies were
+to stay with Mrs. Darcy, and the best in the house was placed at their
+disposal with simple courtesy. They were taken to the mills, where they
+made a tour of inspection; Jack explaining machinery, looms, shuttles,
+and spindles, with an enthusiasm that amazed even himself. There was a
+new interest in the thought of having a voice in the direction of that
+great engine now so silent, and the work it was to do.
+
+"We shall not use half our looms in the beginning," he said; "but I
+hope, before the five years are ended, we shall be doing our utmost."
+
+They all hoped so for his sake. "If any man can make the plan work, he
+will," thought Miss McLeod, who liked him better every hour.
+
+Miss Barry and Sylvie came to call on the ladies in the evening.
+
+"I suppose that is Mr. Darcy's sweetheart," Miss Lothrop remarked
+afterward. "She is a pretty, enthusiastic little thing, and she takes so
+much interest in his affairs. I can just fancy how they will work
+together, and the earnest, useful lives they will lead. What butterflies
+we are!" looking down at her white helpless hands. "Not you, but the
+young women of the day in general. You are a busy bee, and still keep
+storing up your honey."
+
+"And sting occasionally," laughed the sharp, bright old lady.
+
+The sale took place the next morning at ten, at the Court House. There
+was quite a number of spectators, though the ladies, with Maverick and
+Darcy, were in a private office. Hamilton Minor had come up, resolved
+that it should not go for less than the mortgage, but desirous of ending
+his responsibility. There were but two bids. The auctioneer lingered a
+long while on Mr. Hildreth's bid, commenting on the enormous sacrifice,
+but he could move no one's interest. It was reluctantly knocked down,
+the purchase-money paid, and the deed made out to Miss McLeod.
+
+Then the company's agreement was put in lawful, legal shape. The
+managing board of five men were to have sole charge of buying, selling,
+and manufacturing. They were to give all their time and ability, to
+watch the state of the market, and conduct every thing for the benefit
+of the whole corporation. Darcy was to prepare a balance-sheet
+semi-annually, showing profit and loss; and this was to be open to the
+inspection of the firm.
+
+The parties to the second part, the workmen, were to work ten hours a
+day, six days in the week, under the supervision of Hurd and Yardley.
+The wages of the men and the salaries of the managers were to be put at
+the minimum rate, and both parties were to draw two-thirds of this sum
+weekly. At the end of the year, the profits on labor and capital were to
+be evenly divided; one half apportioned to the capital, the other half
+divided _pro rata_; but only half of this sum to be drawn out yearly,
+the other turned over to the capital stock, and placed to each man's
+credit. If any operative should become dissatisfied, and leave, his
+share of the profits was to be forfeited to a fund for sick or disabled
+workmen. Any member of the association guilty of misconduct was to be
+twice reprimanded, and for a third offence expelled. A standing
+committee of the workmen, with one chairman, was to investigate and
+settle such matters. Shares of capital as low as fifty dollars would be
+within reach of the workmen. A clause was inserted, that no ale, beer,
+or spirituous liquors were to be brought into the mill during working
+hours. It had been one of the old-time rules, but often transgressed.
+Each man was to use his best endeavors to promote the interests of the
+firm.
+
+At the end of five years, the agreement was to cease, and the profits to
+be divided.
+
+Then the five-years' lease of Hope Mills and all its appurtenances was
+made out to "Hope Mills Co-operative Association," and duly signed. The
+rental was to be six hundred and sixty dollars per annum, the company to
+pay the taxes, and keep the mills in ordinary repair.
+
+Then the managers and a number of the workmen marched over to Hope Mills
+in a body, opened the doors and barred shutters, and entered with an
+exultant step. They were to try their hand at good-fellowship in labor,
+and see if it would solve the vexations of the old system, or prove any
+stronger bond. Maverick had spread a little feast in what had been
+Eastman's office; and they sat down together, the ladies, joined by
+Sylvie Barry, Mrs. Darcy, and Miss Morgan, taking the head of the table.
+Some speeches were made, and some toasts drank, and everybody wished
+success to Hope Mills. Had John Hope unconsciously foretold their future
+when he christened them for his own glory? Darcy thought so. The name
+had a higher significance now, and was to be the earnest of many souls,
+the watchword to inspire them.
+
+Miss McLeod bade them a hearty farewell. "There may arise some
+emergency, Mr. Darcy," said she, "when indorsing a note, or a similar
+matter, will be of great importance to you. I shall not promise to do
+much of it; but I am strongly interested in this experiment, and want it
+to have a fair trial. Let me hear from you occasionally; and, if you are
+in any great strait, apply to me."
+
+Jack thanked her warmly, and she and Miss Lothrop went their way.
+
+"She is a regular fairy godmother," he said enthusiastically to
+Maverick. "I wonder that you do not adore her!" and he studied his
+friend in astonishment.
+
+"Have you never heard of people being so much alike they could not
+agree?" he asked with a light laugh. "What ever possessed her to bring
+Miss Lothrop? It was in bad taste, to say the least; and, whatever
+faults aunt Jean may have, she seldom makes a blunder of that kind."
+
+"Why, Sylvie was--well, a good deal pleased with her. The acquaintance
+was so short"--
+
+"Miss Barry is the most generous and least exacting woman that I ever
+saw. She judges people by her own noble soul. Jack Darcy"--Maverick shut
+his lips with a sudden resolution, and turned his face partly aside,
+then said in a curiously changed tone, "We are two fools to be talking
+about women, when there are more important matters on hand."
+
+"But I shall always feel grateful to Miss McLeod. There are several
+moneyed men here in Yerbury whose capital is lying idle, who would not
+have done this thing for me if they knew it would keep half Yerbury from
+starving. Yet, if I had offered them ten per cent, they would hardly
+have hesitated. It does seem to me sometimes, that these old dons tempt
+one into lying first, and swindling afterward. If you make them all
+straight, they do not care how much crooked work you do elsewhere."
+
+"Natural depravity and innate selfishness."
+
+And now began the real work. The mills were cleaned of the year's
+accumulation of dust and cobwebs and general untidiness. Winston went at
+the machinery with hearty good-will, and put it in order. Circulars were
+sent out to the old patrons and to new houses, and workmen, workwomen,
+and children straggled in to see what was going on. Were Hope Mills to
+be really opened? and was Mr. Darcy to be master? True, a good many of
+the best men had gone off to try their luck elsewhere, but there were
+plenty left for a start. Only, there was a mystery these people could
+not understand. Something about wages, and something about money; and
+Jack patiently explained the matter, until, as he told Maverick, he felt
+like a cheap-John auctioneer, dispensing wares.
+
+"The best thing will be to have a meeting," declared Maverick. "See
+here, Darcy: I'll hire Brock's Hall myself; and we will have a lecture,
+or a conference-meeting. Subject, 'Work and Wages.' I'll have some
+posters out too. Every one will know what we mean, that we are honest
+men and true; and you will be spared this everlasting palaver. Then we
+will have some rules, or by-laws, or something, for the workmen. Talk to
+Mr. Winston about it. He would make a capital speaker, with his glib
+tongue."
+
+Darcy thought it an excellent plan, and they set about it immediately.
+
+"But you'll have to post me," confessed Winston. "The only co-operation
+I ever was in was a building-association, and our treasurer ran off with
+our funds."
+
+Maverick promised to "coach" him. Indeed, it was the doctor who gathered
+up statistics, and put them in a compact and telling form.
+
+They had a large audience,--men and women. "Robert Winston, Esq.," was
+the orator of the evening. He was a fluent speaker, and had a good deal
+of humor. He began about the early Anglo-Saxon guilds, and the banding
+together of craftsmen when towns grew large and prosperous, and labor
+was performed in the workshops, instead of at home; of the importance of
+the woollen-manufacture in the days of Elizabeth, not only in England,
+but on the Continent, when kings did not disdain to borrow money of
+these corporations; of their final overthrow, and the causes leading to
+it; of the growth of trades-unions, and the views of conflicting writers
+on the subject. The workman's necessities so often compelled him to
+accept what he felt to be inadequate returns, because he could not
+wait,--it was work or starvation with him,--so that in dull times he was
+not only at the mercy of the employer, but every other starving workman.
+On the other hand, so few workmen ever informed themselves concerning
+the employer's perplexities and dangers, they had no broad and vital
+interest in the business until they all became leagued together, as in
+co-operation. Then they shared one another's burdens and prosperity. It
+was not the one great fortune, but the many comfortable incomes. It was
+the fruit of the noblest thought and the truest philanthropy. As a
+producer it had done its best work in France; and he went briefly over
+the work of the masons at Paris, and the Association Remquet, which,
+after carrying on printing business for ten years, divided among its
+members an average of over ten thousand francs; the cloth-factory at
+Vienna, with its flour-mill, bakery, grocery, coal-yard, and farm; the
+different societies in England, that were promising, to say the least.
+All this had been done by the thrift and economy of individual members,
+who educated themselves by doing business, and so were enabled to
+dispense with the profits of middle-men, and the greedy clutch of
+speculators.
+
+After Winston had finished, Dr. Maverick went briefly over their plans
+for Hope Mills in a very simple and direct manner.
+
+"Winston was capital!" said Jack afterward. "When we are hard up we can
+send him off on a lecturing-tour. But wasn't it rather over the heads of
+our people?"
+
+"It was for others beside the workmen. You know, Darcy, some men are so
+used to swindling and misrepresentation, that they invariably accuse
+every plan of another, of the same motive. You will have a good deal of
+this back talk before your five years are ended; and I want Yerbury to
+know that this is an old, old scheme. I might have quoted the children
+of Israel, as aunt Jean did, and shocked the religious portion of the
+community. But, after all, isn't the greatest truth, the Golden Rule,
+co-operation in _all_ forms?" and he glanced up triumphantly.
+
+Jack did not gainsay him.
+
+He had hit the truth in regard to Yerbury. Some of those who had managed
+to hold on to their money through all the stress of hard times raised
+their eyebrows and shook their heads in amused derision. "A fool and his
+money," said they, and "Set a beggar on horseback," besides numerous
+wise saws people love to fling at their neighbors. A mortifying collapse
+was predicted. There wasn't a woollen-mill in the country paying. The
+smaller people who had been easily induced to invest their money in
+building-lots, under the supposition that in a few years there would
+hardly be standing-room in Yerbury, looked askance at this project, so
+much more easily does speculation appeal to human nature, than the
+slower but more honorable results of industry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+IT was easy enough now to get hands who would consent to the
+three-quarter wages. With one winter of semi-starvation the poor of
+Yerbury were glad to take any thing that promised bread. The masters
+were going to share with the men; but they were made distinctly to
+understand, that, unless the mills earned something over and above this,
+there could be no surplus, no dividends. Another thousand of the capital
+had been made up by some of the hands, who thought this promised as well
+as railroad-stocks, lots out on country barrens, or even savings banks.
+
+To be sure, some burly fellows, whose wives could hardly keep soul and
+body together over their washing-tubs, swore great oaths that Jack Darcy
+was a fool to think he could find men to play into his hands that way!
+Bob Winston was a blower, and never kept at any one thing; and some of
+the rest were old screws, and in six months time everybody would see!
+
+However, Hope Mills rang out its great bell cheerfully on Monday
+morning, the middle of September. A small procession wended their way in
+at the side gate. The engine, with Robert Winston at its helm, as they
+had not suited themselves with an engineer, puffed and groaned; but, if
+it was not a merry music, it was good to hear, for all that. The faces
+were pinched and thin with a year's care and want and the horrible fear
+of the future, but they tried to smile cheerfully. More than one poor
+woman had tears in her eyes, and spoke in that hysterical,
+half-laughing, half-crying tone, that told how deeply her feelings were
+moved.
+
+By night they were quite settled in the old places, or adapted to new
+ones. Perhaps the year's experience had done these people some good:
+they had learned to manage closer. Cameron and Darcy had discussed
+thrifty French ways of management, and now meant to profit by them if
+possible. The American spirit of wastefulness should not run riot as it
+had in times past. Dyes and oils and chemicals were to be sharply looked
+after, and Cameron was the man to do it.
+
+Before the first week was out, an engineer came to hand. There had been
+several applications, but some men raised their noses and laughed loudly
+at the rate of wages. A young chap just out of his time when the panic
+came on, and who had tried every thing, even to rail-roading, took the
+place with hearty thanks; a quick, bright fellow too, who had a love for
+his business, and said in ten minutes time, "She's a pretty engine, Mr.
+Winston!" with the enthusiasm of a true artist.
+
+"That chap'll blow up Hope Mills in less than a month," said Jem Stixon,
+who had been refused. "You mark my words! I wouldn't have wife or child
+of mine working there."
+
+Darcy watched the temper of the employees, and reported every few days
+to Maverick. The little social "we" and "ours" was working wonders, he
+thought.
+
+"And we do nothing!" said Sylvie one evening, in a discontented tone, as
+she sat crocheting by Mrs. Darcy's pretty round table in the old
+library, that had become a kind of general business-room. "I thought you
+were going to set us women at work about something. Miss Morgan and I
+have been waiting patiently."
+
+"There was the cooking-school"--
+
+"But we have nothing to cook. And how are we to get any thing? unless we
+set up as those poor weavers in Toad Lane, on our pocket-money. I
+believe I beg from those who have a little, nearly half my time, to give
+to those who have nothing. And, would you believe it, some of the women
+begin to think they _must_ be provided for. Mrs. Cairns asked me to-day
+when the relief-store was going to open. She didn't see why there
+shouldn't always be something here like the parish relief in England.
+And when Mrs. Ray offered to take Josie this winter, and keep her in
+shoes for what she could do, and teach her a little, Mrs. Cairns said,
+'if she was worth any thing, she was worth more than that. She might
+have her for a dollar a week.'"
+
+"Such people ought to go hungry," declared Jane Morgan sharply.
+
+"I've been thinking," said Jack, who now raised his eyes slowly, "there
+is one thing you might help do; and, indirectly, it would be very
+serviceable to me. Sylvie, you know Kit Connelly's corner, as they
+always call it?"
+
+"Well, so it is: Mrs. Connelly earned the money that bought it, and I am
+glad she didn't let Dennis go on in business until he spent every cent
+of it. And oh, Jack! all we women of Yerbury ought to be doubly proud
+that she wouldn't let Den keep a beer-shop there, nor hire it to any one
+else."
+
+"I hope you are. I think Kit was pretty plucky to take the black eyes
+and the grumbling. It was a good job for her when Den went over to the
+Bowman House for hostler. So, of course, it has been shut up a year and
+a half. You know, two blocks down below, Keppler's door stands open for
+everybody, and so many of the mill-hands pass that way. It is so easy to
+run in and get a glass, and the men who bring their lunches go down for
+a mug of ale. It is a terrible temptation, and I wonder if they are not
+more easily tempted on an empty stomach? Well, I've been considering for
+some days if we could not start a coffee-house there,--set Kit up in
+business. I'm not going to fling a temperance-pledge right in every
+man's face,--for that makes them spiteful. I do not even want to exhort.
+But if we put it there,--right in their way,--and there was a nice fire
+in the evening, and maybe a book or two"--
+
+"Splendid, Jack! There's no such thing in Yerbury. Let's get about it
+right away!" and Sylvie sprang up, as if she would start at once.
+
+They all laughed.
+
+"There must be a little planning first. Mrs. Connelly is a bright,
+good-hearted creature, and can make good coffee; and Rose and Kathleen
+would make nice little maids. She stopped me to-night to inquire if
+there was any chance of their being taken in the mill. There must be
+some diversity of employment, or presently we shall all be doing the one
+thing again,"--and Jack smiled humorously. "Dennis gets low wages,
+Bernard is in the mill, and there are two younger boys. She takes in
+gentlemen's laundering, as you know. She was wishing she could rent out
+the store, but no one wants it. Now, if it could be altered into an
+attractive coffee-room, kept neat and bright, and--you will laugh at me,
+no doubt--but given a kind of style,--the cups clean and shining, the
+spoons decent, and some nice bread and butter for noon lunches. All this
+at a moderate price. The men pay five cents for their pint of ale, and
+it is often shared by two: they must not give more than three cents for
+their cup of coffee."
+
+"I suppose you mean that we are to plan it all out for her," said
+Sylvie, and she looked across at Miss Morgan.
+
+"It will not do to buy a pound of sugar and a pound of coffee at a
+time," said Jane concisely.
+
+"Then I will be the capitalist," promised Sylvie.
+
+"Exactly. Kit had better do this on some money that she must give an
+account of, and it will make her more careful. She owns a cow, so there
+is the milk. I should like this started quietly, not with a great blare
+of opposition to the dram-shops."
+
+"Well, what must we do first?" asked Sylvie.
+
+"I wish you and Jane would go down and call on her, and suggest the
+business. See how she takes it, and look around at the capabilities of
+the place. I will see to the fitting-up."
+
+They went, as desired. Mrs. Connelly--a round, rosy, buxom Irishwoman,
+with a mellow voice, laughing eye, and artist-red hair--was very much
+taken with their plan. "To turn an honest penny in these hard times, and
+not be wronging any one, would just suit the likes of her. And there was
+the store standing empty,--but it might stand till the crack o' doom
+afore she'd have a drop of rum sold in it. There never was a better man
+than Den when he was sober, and sure she'd had sorrow enough along wid
+drinking. And there was Barney growin' up, and the two smaller ones, and
+she'd never, never put a bit of temptation in their way."
+
+The store had been used for a meat-shop and green-grocery. Kit had sold
+the fixtures when she had been in sore need of money, so now it was a
+great bare room, with one large window and two small ones.
+
+"Sure I can scrub an' whitewash it myself, an' put clean curtains to the
+windows. And you're very good to think of such a thing, Miss Barry,--may
+the saints bless you! An' if Mr. Darcy will see to getting what is
+wanted, I'll do my very best to please you all."
+
+Sylvie blushed a little at taking the credit, but it was Jack's wish.
+Jack had a small portico built over the door-way, to keep out the cold
+in winter, and a neat sign put up, with but two words,--"Coffee-House."
+Sylvie and Miss Morgan ordered some cheap, small tables, some plain
+wooden chairs, and found two comfortable, old-fashioned, wooden settles.
+Then she collected old magazines and illustrated papers, and a rack was
+put up at one side for them. All the tables were covered with light
+marbled rubber-cloth, so that they would be kept fresh and sweet. The
+sugar and coffee were forthcoming. Kit could roast coffee to a turn. One
+Thursday evening the place was lighted up, and a few guests asked in;
+and the next day the fame of Kit Connelly's coffee-house began. Half the
+folks in Yerbury knew her and Dennis.
+
+Rose Connelly, who was just seventeen, a nice fresh-looking girl, was to
+keep the books, and take the money as she was quite a scholar. Several
+of the mill-hands went over immediately for their lunches. Such splendid
+wheat, rye, and Graham bread, spread already, and brought on a clean
+plate! A nice bite for three cents, and a solid meal for six. Sylvie was
+to go down now and then, of a morning, to keep matters straight.
+
+"There is one entering-wedge in the cause of temperance," she remarked,
+in her piquant way. "Only, Jack, it does not seem quite right for us
+women to take the credit of it. I confess, among all my plans, there has
+been nothing like this."
+
+"I would rather not be openly connected with it," and Jack made a queer
+little grimace. "By and by I may have to do some real fighting on my own
+account, and I don't want too many vulnerable points. Human nature is
+rather queer and cranky, as you have, no doubt, observed by this time."
+
+"But I do not see why any one should want to fight against your good
+work, Jack," said Sylvie, with an indignant flush. "I am sure it is no
+light undertaking to provide all these people with work; and everybody
+ought to strengthen your hands, instead of putting obstacles in the
+way."
+
+"I must be prepared for all things."
+
+Maverick was very enthusiastic over the coffee-house. It was a new
+institution in Yerbury. There had been in good times several so-called
+cheap lunch-rooms, but the fare was invariably poor.
+
+"Keppler will be your first enemy, and your worst one," said the doctor
+with a shrewd smile.
+
+"Very well. He must fight Miss Barry and Miss Morgan. I did send a man
+to do some work, but Miss Barry paid the bills. I keep my hands out of
+it altogether."
+
+"Good for you, Jack. And how does business progress?"
+
+"I am dubious," and Jack shook his head in a mock-serious way. "There is
+too much rose-color. Every thing works to a charm. Whether people really
+have learned something by the hard times, remains to be seen; but it
+looks so now. And we couldn't have a better working firm. Owen Cameron
+is the same kind of a man that Miss Morgan is for a woman, not stingy
+here and wasteful there, but a thorough-going economist. Every week he
+makes a little saving somewhere. It is what we needed to learn, badly
+enough. He manages to make the men understand that every penny saved is
+for the benefit of all, that a yard of cloth or a pound of wool spoiled
+is to the loss of all. And that is the only way to settle this business,
+this everlasting wrangle between labor and capital."
+
+Amos Hurd and Peter Yardley used to talk over the other scheme of a
+co-operative store. It would not do to have too many irons in the fire
+in such times as these, when no one had any great deal of money. But it
+did seem as if poor people were paying at the dearest rate for every
+thing, partly because they asked for trust, and the only man willing to
+trust them to any extent kept a very full line of second or third rate
+articles, but the prices did not always correspond.
+
+"Now, there's coal," said Yardley one evening. "At the trade-sale it
+went up ten cents a ton on the average. Our dealers here, who had their
+yards full, put up their prices from twenty to thirty cents. I know, on
+the other hand, if coal takes a sudden tumble, they may lose; but, after
+watching this thing for years, I find the prices go up five times with
+full yards, where they fall once. Now, I was thinking, when coal was
+bought for the mill, some extra car-loads might be ordered for the men."
+
+"Yes," and Hurd opened his eyes widely. "Let us talk to Darcy about it."
+
+Jack listened to their proposal with a sudden interest.
+
+"It will be some trouble to you," he answered. "It is not as thoroughly
+screened, and there is the delivering. The men cannot carry it home in
+market-baskets."
+
+"I don't know about the screening," said Yardley rather grimly. "When
+you clean up your bin, and find several bushels of sand and refuse out
+of five or six tons, you think half of it, at least, ought to have been
+good burning-coal. And in wholesale buying you get long tons."
+
+"I can do it as well as not," replied Jack. "In fact,"--laughingly,--"it
+will rather redound to my credit to order largely, and we have a
+somewhat extensive coal-shed. But you must look up one or two men who
+will cart it, and a man to screen; and, when you have counted up your
+labor, decide upon what price you can offer your coal. Perhaps it would
+be as well to canvass, and learn how many tons you can dispose of."
+
+The workmen had their own board of managers, of which Yardley had been
+elected president. They generally met every week, and now Yardley laid
+this matter before them. There would be an average saving, he thought,
+of two dollars on every ton, but the coal must be paid for in thirty
+days. If the men chose to leave one or two dollars every Monday night
+(for Darcy had wisely made Monday instead of Saturday pay-day) they
+might give in an order for one or two or even three tons.
+
+Meanwhile Peter Yardley found some thorns even in his path. A good,
+stout Irish lad was willing to do the screening at a dollar per day; but
+when he spoke to several carters, who were not busy half the time, to a
+man they stuck to their regular price, fifty cents per ton. Not one of
+them would work by the day.
+
+"I can fix that just right," declared one of the men. "My wife's brother
+has a heavy wagon and two mules. He used to do carting for the
+iron-mills, and since then he has had mostly catch-jobs. He owns a
+little place over on the creek-road; and I know he will be glad enough
+to do it, and maybe take part of his pay in coal."
+
+Seth Williams was hunted up. He would come, and bring his son who would
+help about loading, for two dollars and a half a day. There were
+seventy-odd tons subscribed for, but they decided to make their order
+one hundred tons. Coal was selling at six dollars and a half per ton at
+Yerbury. After due calculation, they offered theirs to the men at four.
+
+It came duly to hand. After the first day, Williams hired another team
+on his own account, and his son drove one to its destination, making
+thereby extra time. Before the seventy tons had been delivered, the
+remainder was bespoken. They found when it had all been disposed of, and
+their workmen paid, that they had counted very closely, but there was a
+small balance on hand. This was deposited in the bank as a nucleus for a
+co-operative store as soon as there might be sufficient capital to
+warrant it. This, at least, had been a success. So many of the poorer
+class of Yerbury were not able to pay for the last ton of coal until
+they ordered again, being always that much behind.
+
+Yardley was quite jubilant over his scheme.
+
+"You forget that in this you and Hurd have received nothing for your
+trouble," said Darcy. "Then," smilingly, "you have no bad debts to count
+out. Still only a philanthropist can do business this way. If you were
+the proprietor of a coal-yard, you could not afford it."
+
+"I think I have something for my trouble, Mr. Darcy," the man answered
+proudly. "I have saved ten dollars on my four tons of coal, and that
+surely pays me."
+
+They were doing moderately well at the mill. Several orders had come in
+from old buyers; and now Winston started out on a travelling tour, being
+admirably fitted for that part of the business. At the West he managed
+to talk two large wool-dealers into a trade; they taking cloth of
+various grades in exchange, and disposing of it to the best of their
+ability.
+
+"A regular old-fashioned barter," he wrote to Maverick. "It took a good
+deal of talking, to be sure, but I'm never the worse for that. They were
+pleased to get a fair price for their wool, and I lost nothing on my
+cloth. It clears out the stock, and keeps the men busy."
+
+Indeed, Hope Mills was doing a great thing for Yerbury. There was a
+brisker air on the streets, a kind of inspiring music in the whir and
+clatter, that spoke of food and warmth and raiment. Good feeling and
+sympathy had been touched; and though some of the workmen, who were
+harassed by back debts, looked rather ruefully at their small weekly
+pittance, still it was so much better than no money and no employment.
+
+At the Darcys they held what Sylvie laughingly called "symposiums." The
+churches were organizing their winter work, for there would be need
+enough. The few who had found employment merely made a ripple on the
+surface. Some who had stretched out their scanty means the past year now
+found themselves penniless. Others had tramped about the neighboring
+towns and cities, getting a few weeks' work here and there, but had no
+fancy for facing winter in this precarious manner. The hopeful feeling
+animating so many in the early autumn died out again. It was feared
+that we had not seen the worst of the panic.
+
+To Sylvie, who the preceding winter had been engrossed in art-studies
+and delightful social life, the want and misery were appalling. She and
+Miss Morgan did organize a visiting-society according to an idea of Dr.
+Maverick's; and though they alleviated many cases of distress, and were
+the better able to distinguish who were worthy, still they increased
+upon their hands.
+
+"I begin to realize that poor people do not make the best of their
+money," she said. "They do not know how to prepare dishes that shall be
+cheap and palatable. And, worst of all, many of them cannot cook a
+potato so that it shall be fit to eat."
+
+"The weak point of this world, Miss Sylvie," said Dr. Maverick. "When
+women learn to make good bread and cook potatoes, there will be a
+decrease of one-half in dyspepsia. Now, what is the secret of the
+potatoes? Come, air your ideas! Give me a recipe, and I will take it
+around among my patients. I advise them pretty generally to bake them,
+but I find some soggy and watery even then."
+
+"Overdone," said Miss Morgan briefly.
+
+"Well, state the exact time."
+
+The women looked at each other, and laughed.
+
+"From twenty minutes to half an hour," said Mrs. Darcy. "Some kinds boil
+easier than others. For baking, three-quarters to an hour."
+
+"But the infallible test?"
+
+"Watchfulness," said Jane.
+
+"I must admit that you seem to understand it thoroughly, judging from
+the specimens I have seen and eaten. But are you not a little chary in
+your information?" and he glanced from one to another.
+
+"Miss Morgan shall be first spokeswoman," declared Sylvie gayly.
+
+"If it is a boiled potato," began Jane sententiously, as if she were a
+child speaking a piece, "I put mine in the saucepan, and pour hot water
+over them, as they come to a boil sooner, taking care that they shall be
+as nearly of a size as possible. In about twenty minutes I try an
+average potato. If I can stick a fork through it nicely, it is done.
+Then I pour off the water, letting it drain until every drop is gone,
+when I shake up the lot two or three times rather hard and quick, stand
+them on the back of the stove with the cover partly off, so that the
+steam may escape; and you have a dry, light, flaky potato, unless it was
+irremediably bad to begin with. I have sometimes boiled new and rather
+small potatoes in twelve minutes over a good fire. But cooking, like
+liberty, has the same high price, eternal vigilance."
+
+Maverick laughed. "I shall remember this," he exclaimed. "You will yet
+hear of me teaching some of my poor patients to cook potatoes. Heaven
+knows there is enough need of it. Wasn't there some talk of a school for
+useful arts?"
+
+"Yes," answered Sylvie, "only there was no money to start with, and we
+have all been so busy."
+
+"What would be needed?"
+
+"_Imprimis_: a room, a cooking-stove, a fire, a cook, and some
+materials," replied Sylvie with merry audacity.
+
+How pretty and bright she was! He liked to watch her in these changeful
+moods. One great charm of this place was finding her here so frequently.
+
+"And Mr. Darcy has been so much engrossed with weightier matters," she
+continued in a half apology.
+
+"I really think I ought to be more interested in this question than Mr.
+Darcy. It supplements my work. While cheap living is an imperative
+necessity in times of depression and low wages, I cannot see why we do
+not make it more of a study. While we are so ready to copy the vices of
+our French neighbors, perhaps their virtues would do us no harm. A
+doctor often finds himself quite nonplussed by something in the
+preparation of the patient's diet. The old doctrine preached years ago,
+on St. Paul's text of 'keeping the body under,' has worked as much
+damage as the asceticism of the middle ages. A good healthy body is the
+first requisite everywhere; and to keep it so, every one's first duty.
+When men began to consider the body a poor, vile thing, to be treated
+with contumely, and fed with what would just sustain life, they offered
+an outrage to the highest work of God. When people think it is no matter
+what they eat, and that no pains need be taken in the preparation, they
+have made a big lapse toward heathenism. Confusion of the physical
+senses leads to confusion of the moral sense; and weak, miserable bodies
+with hysterical nerves, though they may dream dreams, and see visions,
+cannot do good healthy work in this world. And your poor people need a
+good deal of training on this subject. It must be made an honorable, not
+a despised, business. If I were to build houses, I should make the
+kitchens large, light, and pretty; and, if any room had to be small and
+uninviting, it should be that for the storage of the best furniture,"
+laughing humorously.
+
+"Yes," responded Jane Morgan, "I like to go into an old-fashioned
+country kitchen, with a nice painted floor, and braided rag rugs laid
+down here and there: with a grandmother's corner by a sunny window, and
+a father's chair by the wide, cheerful chimney-piece, and a place for
+the children to play, with plenty of room to get about. Apples and nuts
+always taste so good in such a place! Instead, we have a stuffy little
+kitchen and a cheerless dining-room, that no one wants to sit in, and
+every member of the family goes to his or her room, and sociability is
+at an end. Then we must go to theatres, lectures, and concerts, just to
+catch a glimpse of the members of our own family."
+
+"There is a good deal of truth in that," and the doctor nodded
+sagaciously. "And now I shall take steps for that school. I may count on
+you, Miss Morgan, may I not, and Miss Barry?"
+
+They both promised.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+MEANWHILE what had befallen Fred Lawrence?
+
+He had been greatly shocked at his father's death. True, the tender,
+intense affection that had so sweetened childhood seemed to have died
+out; when they might have attained to an enduring friendship, they had
+gone separate ways, missing the exquisite sympathy that should have
+existed between them. Whether the distance was any disappointment to his
+father, he had never thought. He was the only son of the house, and his
+slightest wish had always been gratified. There had been no wretched
+vices that sap body and soul, nothing to bring dishonor on the old pure,
+family name; and, if David Lawrence missed something that he had hardly
+longed for, he still felt proud of his son.
+
+But his son, bending over the coffined face, was stunned, paralyzed. Of
+this death he had never thought. Was it not rather a frightful dream?
+
+The sharp reality followed fast enough. He listened, still bewildered by
+the horrible visions that crowded upon him. Hope Mills closed, notes
+going to protest, workmen clamoring for pay, Mr. Eastman quite out of
+reach, indeed, no one knew just where.
+
+Mr. Minor did not spare his father-in-law. How could he trust every
+thing to Horace Eastman! How could he allow George to go on unchecked in
+such a career of wild speculation! forgetting that he had speculated
+quite as wildly. And now all the property was covered with mortgages,
+and not a dollar to be squeezed out of any thing. As for the bank
+business, that he sneered at. Let them look to the Eastmans. They might
+have known that a small manufacturing town like Yerbury could not stand
+such galloping progress. In his heart of hearts he thought George and
+Horace rather clever fellows to get away before the crash began. And if
+David Lawrence had only managed to provide well for his family,--his
+manifest duty,--the rest might have gone without a sigh, such trifles as
+notes and wages.
+
+Fred Lawrence he looked upon as a baby. Indeed, Fred was of but little
+use in settling the business, much more plague than profit, since he
+stood up stoutly for his father's honor and integrity. He had that much
+of a son's love. And he characterized Horace Eastman's villany as it
+deserved: his education had not quite done away with his moral sense in
+such matters.
+
+"Here for five years your father has given him a clean sweep with every
+thing! If you thrust temptation right in a man's way, what can you
+expect?"
+
+"His honesty would not be of a very high order if it could withstand no
+temptation," Fred answered rather scornfully. "It was necessary for
+father to travel in the interests of the business. He surely could not
+stay here to watch him. And you thought well of Eastman."
+
+"No man would play _me_ such rascally tricks! There is no telling what
+he has done! Books can be doctored to look very fair."
+
+But they found enough. Pay-rolls for men kept up long after they had
+been discharged, and many who had never been at all; systematic
+falsifications that could not be brought to light without a rigid
+inspection and comparison by an expert. But Hamilton Minor felt, with
+the world's wisdom, that bringing the Eastmans back as criminals would
+not be likely to lead to any restoration; while it would prove a family
+disgrace, and perhaps add Gertrude to the list of dependent ones.
+
+"It makes me heart-sick!" declared Fred. "There is nothing but
+selfishness and hollowness and greed. Are truth and honor quite dead?"
+
+"Very fine talk, my young friend," said Minor in a sneering tone; "but
+the question that more nearly concerns you is how you are all going to
+live, granting even that there may be enough to pay the debts. Of course
+this great house cannot be kept afloat. You had better discharge some of
+the servants, and retrench while you do remain in it."
+
+Then had followed the talk with Agatha, when matrimony was proposed as a
+certain and sure remedy for these present ills: a cure the young man
+disdained with anger.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence kept to her room, and was too ill to listen to business
+details, even if she could have helped in any way, which she could not.
+She fancied now, like many another woman, that her husband had been her
+only delight in life, and that there was nothing left. When Agatha
+suggested that she had been very short-sighted to consent to mortgaging
+Hope Terrace, she cried, and said "she would have given up every thing
+for him, and now that he was gone she wanted no fortune,--she should
+never leave her room again until she was carried."
+
+If there had been any bright little Sylvie to run in and comfort her!
+any strong-hearted, tender woman, to whom he could turn! He seemed now
+to realize more keenly what he had lost, than on the night Sylvie
+rejected him. And that other strong, manly soul--no, bitterly as he
+might regret, he could no more go back to him than to Sylvie.
+
+He roused himself, and began his work, utterly astounded at the
+extravagance that met him on every side. No doubt it looked right enough
+when there was plenty of money; but it seemed now as if the servants had
+been masters and mistresses, that all these luxuries existed for their
+sake,--the gardens and graperies, the greenhouses with their wealth of
+costly flowers; the horses standing idle in the stable, with only
+servants to use them; his father a plain man, his mother confined mostly
+to two or three rooms, and occasional visitors; supplies ordered
+lavishly, and wasted in a manner that seemed wicked even to him. He
+wondered in a vague way if the system was not radically wrong that
+brought such waste and carelessness in vogue, when hundreds had not the
+necessities of life. He remembered one talk his father had with Horace
+Eastman over in the library yonder, with champagne and cigars between
+them, in the height of one of the strikes, and how Eastman had figured
+to a penny the exact percentage of wages the mill could afford to pay.
+What if _they_ had given up a little of their luxury, and _he_ his
+ill-gotten gains!
+
+He had the pictures packed under his supervision, and sent to New York.
+Not without a pang; for many of them he had selected, and each one had
+some pleasant reminder. The choice collection of the greenhouse was
+offered for sale, the elegant furniture, and all the most valuable of
+the personal property. Times were hard, and sales were slow; but there
+would be sufficient realized, it was thought, to pay the floating
+indebtedness. Hope Terrace and the mills would probably go for the
+mortgages. There was a small life-insurance settled upon Mrs. Lawrence,
+and the children would be fortuneless.
+
+By spring the estate was in a fair way of settlement. Fred had vibrated
+between the city and Yerbury all winter, but his mother had been taken
+to Mrs. Minor's. A gardener and his wife were placed in charge of the
+house, while efforts were being made to rent it. A few rooms had not
+been disturbed.
+
+And now Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence looked about him to see what could
+be done. Up to this time he had never given himself an anxious thought
+about money or his future. Now it stared him unpleasantly in the face.
+What could _he_ do?
+
+Many things, he said at first, with the buoyant certainty of youth and
+inexperience. Here was his education, his talents, his fine mental
+training. Surely he had the magical open-sesame of some door.
+
+So he set to work industriously, and wrote several articles on the
+history and the philosophy of the pure sciences. Very fine-drawn indeed,
+very intellectual and analytical, as he went through the different
+schools of thought, being able, it seemed to him, to argue as well for
+the one side as for the other. Then he tried Neo-Platonism with its
+profoundly mystical aspects and its brilliant array of philosophers, its
+fascinating aspects of Pantheism. The new world and to-day had nothing
+for him; the dead and gone past, every thing.
+
+Alas! From every side he heard the cry, Literature had been overdone. No
+one would buy, no one would read, in this great turmoil. Everybody wrote
+now, schoolgirls, college-fledglings: even small farmers and mechanics,
+with the training of the present and a smattering of knowledge, set up
+for geniuses.
+
+One advised him to try the realistic school: the old-time philosophies
+had lost the high place they once held, and to gain the attention of
+to-day writers must have snap and vim. Another recommended popular
+science made easy and attractive to general readers, something that
+caught at the first glance. Life was too short to be devoting years to
+any one branch of study. Still another was fain to persuade him to
+attack the pernicious systems and monstrous abuses of the present day.
+Then he stumbled over Crosby, one of his college-chums and a member of
+the L---- Club, where he had been a frequent and welcome visitor the
+winter before.
+
+"My dear fellow," said he, with patronizing good-nature, "take my
+advice, and let literature alone. It is one of the most uncertain
+things. To-day you may suit, to-morrow a chap comes along with some new
+fandango or summersault of high art, and the world leaves everybody to
+run after him, and you are thrown over. A man cannot earn his salt
+unless he has the _entrée_ of the initiated ring. As for journalism, you
+may hammer at that for twenty years before you get a position."
+
+Poor Fred went back to his room sorely depressed. It was a quiet, clean
+room in a second-rate hotel, for which he paid twelve dollars a week.
+There he sat and brooded, until taking up the paper one morning he saw
+the arrival of one of his old professors at the "Grand Union." Perhaps
+he might put him in the way of something. So he plucked up heart, and
+went to call.
+
+Professor Dennison received him very cordially, and expressed the
+warmest sympathy for the loss of his father and his fortune. He listened
+attentively to the young man's desires, and answered in suavest of
+tones.
+
+There were so many applications: every avenue seemed full. Young lawyers
+and doctors, finding no opening, had gone back to teaching, and the
+college-graduates of every year swelled this number. He would bear it in
+mind, and see what he could do; but he advised his young friend not to
+build too high hopes. "If I could make a place I should put you in it at
+once," he said kindly, just as he said it to a dozen others.
+
+It was so everywhere. There were no copyists, translators, or writers
+needed. The clerkships were overcrowded. It was not that there were too
+many doing one thing, but everything,--too many people in the world.
+Could the Malthusian doctrine be right, after all?
+
+He dropped into his brother-in-law's office one morning, and, though he
+hated to ask a favor of him, discussed in a rather fragmentary and
+abashed way the possibility of getting any thing to do; and a fortnight
+after, Mr. Minor sent him word of a broker who wanted a clerk, salary
+fifty dollars per month.
+
+It was better than nothing. Then, too, it was a beginning, although he
+could imagine more congenial employments. It did not look much like hard
+times, to note the immense amount of stocks and bonds that passed
+through the hands of this great house.
+
+Just at this period Irene returned. A fine, stately girl, with the
+indescribable air that foreign society gives. Yet she seemed haughty,
+bitter, and satirical; and it came out presently that she and Gertrude
+had quarrelled over a possible husband, and the amiable Gertrude had
+taunted her with dependence in the future. Irene had sold some diamonds,
+and travelled on the proceeds.
+
+"I think you were very short-sighted, Irene," said Mrs. Minor when she
+had drawn this story out of her sister. "A handsome American girl does
+stand a better chance for matrimony abroad than here. So many fortunes
+have been lost in the panic, and certainly I cannot blame these men for
+choosing heiresses. You have been in society a great deal here, and you
+will find fresh young girls beginning to crowd you out. Fred has
+nothing, and from present indications will hardly be able to take care
+of himself. It was such a misfortune that papa had every thing
+mortgaged! So Gertrude was right," in a bitterly suave tone: "you must
+be dependent upon some one until you do marry."
+
+"Oh, no! I might set up millinery,--with my taste and aptitude for
+arrangement. I think I have read of reduced young women who made
+fortunes in that line," retorted Irene the queenly, in her unmoved way.
+She was not one to cry out at a dagger-thrust.
+
+"Don't be a fool!" advised Mrs. Minor, in a short, incisive tone.
+
+She, like most other people, had meant to economize this summer; but now
+she made a sudden start for Newport. Irene certainly was peerless in her
+half-mourning, with her statuesque figure. But there was not an eligible
+at Newport, so they turned their steps Saratoga-ward. And here they
+found an old admirer of Mrs. Minor's, Gordon Barringer, a widower for
+the second time, the owner of a silver-mine and a railroad, and Heaven
+alone knew the length and breadth of his possessions.
+
+Miss Agatha Lawrence had turned up her aristocratic nose at him, as a
+rather coarse and self-assured person, as proud of his want of education
+as other men were of its acquirement. Now he was about forty, stout,
+high-colored, loud of voice, and with an important swagger. But money
+had given "our enterprising citizen" power, and he both understood and
+wielded it skilfully.
+
+His wife had been dead barely six months, but when he met Irene Lawrence
+he decided at once that the penniless beauty would be only too glad to
+marry him. He was proud to think he could afford to be so magnanimous.
+Mrs. Minor settled herself to the fact that there must be no foolish
+dallying. Of course Irene _would_ see. She could not be so idiotically,
+so fatally blind!
+
+I do not know that at this period of her life Irene Lawrence had any
+ideal. She had made conquests so easily, she had found men so much
+alike, and in her secret heart she despised them for being so ready to
+kneel and bow at beauty's shrine. It seemed to her as if youth and
+fortune were alike boundless; and she literally took no thought for the
+morrow, until the tidings of her father's death was followed by the
+subsequent news of loss of fortune.
+
+If George Eastman had a self-conviction that he and his cousin had
+contributed to this downfall, he tried to make it up to Irene in
+brotherly kindness and generous expenditure where money was concerned.
+He solaced himself with the thought that, after all, he had no more than
+his own, or what should have been his own rightfully, though he fancied
+he could not have gone on to the end quite as Horace had.
+
+When Sir Christopher Frodsham came across the two ladies in Paris,
+Gertrude exulted at the easy conquest. A man of fifty, whose young years
+and health had been spent in sowing a plentiful crop of wild oats, but
+to whom had come now, quite unexpectedly, a fortune and a title; and
+prosperity, after years of rather bitter economy, made him miserly, as
+it not unfrequently does such men. That he would have been glad to marry
+this young, beautiful girl, for himself alone, was most true. And Irene,
+in the bewilderment of the losses, inclined to his proposal, and begged
+time for consideration.
+
+He was not a man she could admire, respect, or love. He was narrow,
+egotistical, selfish, and with the pitiful vanity of a worn-out _roué_.
+Frodsham Park was in a lonely, mountainous part of England, bordering on
+Wales; and this man would look upon his wife as a nurse and companion,
+and the mother of an heir.
+
+There must have been a little strain of heroism in the girl. Suddenly,
+in one of those quick, vivid flashes, like mental lightning, she saw
+that she could not do this thing. She was not at all given to analysis;
+she had never dissected her own soul, or that of her neighbors; but she
+arrived at one of those swift, clear verdicts,--she could not marry Sir
+Christopher; and she told him so, with a frankness a trifle tenderer,
+perhaps, than she had used with her lovers heretofore, as if some way
+she had wronged him in thought.
+
+Over this, as I said, she and Gertrude had bitter words and a parting.
+Now the same thing stared her in the face again. This lover was too
+obtuse to be stung by the fine arts of coquetry that lengthened practice
+had brought to perfection. In all the bravery of self-assertion, he did
+not know when he was beaten; and so he fought against the intangible
+spear-points with which Miss Lawrence could surround herself.
+
+Mr. Barringer was called to New York on important business law-suits;
+and two days after, Mrs. Minor declared herself wearied out with
+Saratoga. Irene felt the walls of fate closing remorselessly about her.
+Why should she struggle? she asked herself. After all, what could she do
+but marry?
+
+Meanwhile, Hope Mills had been sold. Fred made some inquiries about it.
+
+"A woman--a rich old maid, I believe, by name McLeod, who knows enough
+to drive a sharp bargain--has taken it. Some one is to set up the
+business, I heard; an impecunious nephew, no doubt. No one but a fool
+would make a venture when the market is overstocked with goods. It is a
+shame that the estate had to lose such a valuable piece of property; but
+there was no income to pay taxes and interest, and, standing empty, it
+would soon have eaten itself up."
+
+Fred sighed. For the first time, he wondered how it would have ended if
+he had been brought up to some useful business, and perhaps have taken
+Eastman's place with his father. As for stock and share jobbing, he was
+heartily sick of it. To him it appeared an immense system of swindling
+the ignorant and unsuspecting.
+
+However, he was not destined to nurse his disgust very long in brooding
+silence. The last of September the great house of Bristol, Stokes, &
+Co., collapsed. The wreck was unexpected, the ruin wide-spread. The
+house of Minor & Morgan was hard hit, which did not improve Mr. Minor's
+temper, though, Spartan-like, he wore a cheerful face, and kept his
+losses to himself. Even if it should be his turn next, the world must
+not know it.
+
+"There's a letter that concerns you, though it was sent to me as
+administrator," said Minor to Fred, as he sauntered in one morning,
+tossing the missive over to him.
+
+Fred opened it with languid indifference, and his eye wandered over the
+following lines:--
+
+          HAMILTON MINOR, ESQ.
+
+          _Dear Sir_,--On taking possession of Hope Mills,
+          for business purposes, I find some personal
+          property belonging to the late Mr. Lawrence. It
+          may have a value for the family, and shall be at
+          your disposal whenever you desire it. Respectfully
+          yours,
+
+                                                 JOHN DARCY.
+
+"As soon as Hope Terrace is disposed of, the accounts can be audited and
+settled," said Minor in a sharp, business-like way. "The debts have all
+come in, and been paid dollar for dollar; though, if your father had
+been a prudent man, he would have made sure of something for his family.
+No one expects estates to pay more than fifty per cent nowadays."
+
+Fred rose, and crushed Jack Darcy's note in his pocket, holding himself
+proudly, while his cheek flushed.
+
+"I am very thankful," in a clear, cold tone. "My father's life was pure
+and honorable, and no man can fling a stone at his grave. I would rather
+be penniless, as I am, than have it otherwise."
+
+"Oh! very well, very well," sneeringly.
+
+Fred walked out of the office, and turned into Broadway. The same
+curious, restless, hurrying throng. Where were they all going? Did they
+find room and work? How clearly the sun shone! The sky was so blue, with
+great drifts of white floating about,--strange barques on a mystical
+sea. In spite of the outside roar and rush, there was a solemn and
+awesome stillness within him. He began to feel how entirety alone he
+stood. A twelvemonth ago there were hosts of friends pulling him hither
+and yon, proposing this and that, laughing and chatting gayly. Where
+were they now? Not all weak and false, but the shadow of circumstances
+had drifted them apart. We do not always cease to love or like when
+separation ensues; and in this shifting, changing life, people drop out,
+yet are not quite forgotten. Some of the young fellows whom fortune had
+buffeted had found a place in active, stirring life: he, with his
+education, refinement, accomplishments, and talent, was merely a piece
+of driftwood. Sylvie Barry had been right,--he was a useless appendage
+to the world. Ah, no wonder she despised him! Sturdy, honest Jack Darcy
+could find a place. His self-complacency was more than touched,--it was
+shattered, completely broken up. The present was blank and colorless,
+the future like a thick mist in which there penetrated not one ray of
+light. What did all his elaborate philosophies for him now?--art, that
+was to regenerate the world; science, that explained and refined, and
+found a place and a reason for every thing in the universe; man, the
+most important of all. And here he was, tossed aside like a weed. Who
+cared whether his nature was foul or kinglike? He was, in truth, one of
+the atoms floating about in space, and finding no use or purpose. The
+world could go on just as well without him. Why, if he should drop
+himself over into the river, there would be only a ripple. He laughed,
+as if his personality was something that did not really belong to him,
+that could be put off at will, that was, in truth, answerable to no
+power. All of life, then, had been a lie!
+
+He stumbled onward blindly. A sense of dreary mystery crept over
+him,--an utter hopelessness. He essayed to stretch out his hand to some
+passer-by, but the careless faces mocked him. There was no strength or
+stay. He could not even cry out with his anguish,--it was a dumb,
+inarticulate voice. All his idols had been destroyed, and there was no
+God to cry to!
+
+His last three weeks' salary had gone down in Bristol & Co.'s ruin.
+There were some jewels to sell, a few more pictures, several sets of
+rare books, and--what then?
+
+Starvation had appeared so utterly improbable in this great, thriving
+world, and here he was, almost face to face with it,--he who had never
+taken an anxious thought about any thing, who had felt as if he really
+honored money by the spending of it. A beggar! An object of charity to
+Hamilton Minor!
+
+No, that should never be. He tried to rouse himself from his lethargy.
+He went around to stores and offices where he was not known, and asked
+for something to do, as if in a curious masquerade. The same answer
+everywhere. Nothing! The sun went slowly down, the street-lamps were
+lighted. Every inch of his body ached with the long tramp and nervous
+exhaustion. He had eaten nothing since breakfast, but he was not hungry.
+What if he did steal quietly over to the river, and end it all?
+
+The desperation was hardly black enough for that. Somewhere near
+midnight he strolled home: how much longer would there be a home, he
+wondered?
+
+He thrust his hand in his pocket, and the bit of folded paper struck
+sharp against his fingers, so he drew it out. Hardly the familiar
+school-boy scrawl: Jack used to hate writing, he remembered. This had a
+decisive force about it. How odd that business-like "John" looked!
+"Jack!" He uttered the name aloud, and a thrill seemed to warm his
+frozen heart,--to stir emotions most contradictory. A sense of shame
+predominated, tingling his very finger-ends, crimsoning his pale cheeks,
+and stinging his soul with a sense of utter humiliation. He had prided
+himself so much upon the immaculate honor of his life, and lo! here he
+stood, self-convicted of one of the basest of sins,--broken faith. Not
+from any sudden, hot dispute, not from a knowledge of deception or any
+small meanness, but deliberate, well-considered treachery. It would have
+been manlier had he said to Jack, "Our ways lie apart, and in the future
+we shall meet so seldom, it is hardly worth while to keep up a pretence
+of friendship." He had skulked away instead, kept out of sight,--basely
+shunned the strong, tender soul that had helped to make a peevish
+boyhood sunny and bright.
+
+Black as this ingratitude looked to him now, he experienced a strange
+and intense desire to see his olden friend once more. What was he doing
+at Hope Mills? Had he found a place?
+
+The next morning's mail brought him a check for sixty dollars, for an
+article he had thought little of himself, and sent merely because he had
+happened to finish it, and was despatching his ventures out on the sea
+of chance. Then he went over to Mrs. Minor's: he had not seen his mother
+for several days.
+
+He was quite in the habit of going directly up to her room; but, as he
+neared it, he heard voices raised in no gentle discussion. Agatha stood
+in the middle of the room, flushed, angry, an open note in her hand;
+Mrs. Lawrence was weeping hysterically, while Irene sat pale and sullen,
+but her eyes gleaming with a dangerous fire.
+
+"Very well: if you deliberately decide to take a beggar's portion, then,
+do not look to me for any further help," said Mrs. Minor. "This marriage
+would have afforded you every luxury; and you have thrown aside the
+chance, like a silly school-girl. Perhaps you _have_ some secret,
+favored lover!" and the glittering eyes might have annihilated a weaker
+woman than Irene Lawrence.
+
+"If I had, I should go to him. I would live on crusts and a cup of cold
+water with him, rather than luxury," with a bitter, stinging emphasis,
+"and my own humiliation. The man would drive me mad, Agatha! Some day,
+yielding to an irresistible impulse, I should murder him;" and she gave
+a shrill, unnatural laugh.
+
+Fred went over to her, and took her hand. His business in life was to be
+her champion, her defender, her support,--not only against this
+monstrous marriage, at which her soul revolted, but Agatha's sneers and
+flings, and the dependence a proud soul must naturally feel when the
+very bread turns to ashes in one's mouth. How it was to be done, he
+could not tell at that moment; but he drew one long breath of honest,
+hopeful manliness, and resolved to leave no stone unturned.
+
+His mother wept in his comforting arms. She was very much
+shattered,--quite an old woman long before her time, made so by the
+follies of an indolent, enervating life. Like a pang the thought pierced
+his brain, that for these paltry results his father had given the
+strength and labor of manhood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+THERE were a few faint hints of autumn in Yerbury. The air was warm, and
+freighted with the peculiar sweetness of over-ripe grapes and apples, of
+dried balsam and faded golden-rod by the wayside. The very air seemed to
+quiver with intense contrasts of color, the yellow beeches standing out
+in strong relief, the bronze-red of one great oak, the bluish-green of
+the spruce, and the tender tints of fading, long-armed larches, drooping
+in regretful sadness. Lights of silvery gray and russet-brown, pale gold
+and hazy purple, and a sapphire sky bending over all. The artistic side
+of Fred Lawrence's soul was touched as he had once fancied nothing this
+side of Europe could touch it.
+
+For a moment a mighty rush of regret came over him. This magnificent
+place had been his home. Perhaps he would have been more than human not
+to have experienced a pang.
+
+He wandered about for some time. It was too lovely to go in and explore
+those dusty, darkened rooms: this evening would answer for that. He
+paced the lawn, he lingered by the gate; he took a turn about the
+grapery, now used for profit by the thrifty farmer who had charge of the
+place. Then he turned, and went down the street. The bells were ringing
+for six. From his height above, he could see the laborers wending their
+way, the great chimney of Hope Mills. He would walk in that direction.
+They would all be gone by the time he reached it.
+
+The streets were indeed nearly deserted. In the shade here the wind
+blew a little chilly. Yes, it was just the same; but then, it would not
+be likely to alter in a year. Why, it seemed a decade almost, since the
+night he had come home to his dying father!
+
+Ah, if they had been more to each other! Did he go about with a lonely
+spirit, Fred wondered, feeling the uselessness and insufficiency of the
+life he was leading? Had he been glad to lay the burthen down?
+
+A sudden firm, manful step ran down the stone stairway with a cheerful
+ring, and a voice hummed a tune softly, as one sometimes does for a
+seeming accompaniment, when the mind is occupied with other things;--a
+tall, robust figure, with long arms, and a springy step, as if he might
+still leap a post, or jump the creek. He was rushing off, when,
+curiously enough, with no other motive than an impulse, he turned, and
+saw an almost motionless figure.
+
+Whether he would send for the articles belonging to his father, or visit
+Hope Mills in person, risking a sight of Jack Darcy, or whether he would
+summon courage enough to ask for his old friend, were matters that Fred
+had put off for to-morrow's decision. Why he had wandered here at all,
+amazed him now; and he stood quite breathless at the unexpected
+apparition, without power to move or speak.
+
+If he had still been in the high tide of prosperity, Jack would have
+passed him by silently, but with no rudeness. Something in the bent
+head, the pale face, the general melancholy attitude, came home to his
+heart,--his fresh, generous, magnanimous heart. He ventured a step
+nearer, he put out his hand.
+
+"Fred, old fellow!"
+
+The rich, full voice might have melted any heart. The frank, honest eyes
+lighted with wonderful tenderness: there was a glow and earnestness that
+could come only from a large, forgiving soul, capable of putting by its
+own sense of pain or any past discomfiture.
+
+Fred Lawrence crimsoned to the very edge of his hair, to the farthest
+depths of his soul. He would have taken the hand: then he drew back with
+a gesture of self-reproach, as if he could tread his past sinful pride
+in the dust.
+
+"Let's forget the bygones," the hearty young fellow began, "that is, if
+you would like to have it so," drawing back a trifle to give him his
+choice as a delicate woman might have done.
+
+"Thank you, Jack," grasping the warm, firm hand in his own pale, cold
+one, and raising his soft dark eyes, so near to tears. Just now no other
+words would come.
+
+Jack drew the hand through his arm. "I've thought of you so many times,"
+he began, as if they had parted the best of friends. "It has been a sad
+year for many, doubly so for you."
+
+"Sad indeed. O Jack!"
+
+It was all uttered in the long tremulous swell of voice that tells the
+whole story.
+
+"Yes."
+
+With that, their friendship was renewed. Women might have fallen into
+each other's arms with expressions of penitence and forgiveness; but
+they had said their say, as was characteristic of both.
+
+"Were you coming in?" and Darcy turned back as he asked the question.
+
+"No: I only reached Yerbury an hour or so ago on a little business. Some
+remembrance of old time brought me hither."
+
+"I am glad it did. Shall we walk down Main Street? Are you staying at
+Hope Terrace?"
+
+"I shall be for a few days."
+
+A silence fell between them. There was no one else in the street; and
+their steps sounded with a steady tramp, as if they might walk on to
+some definite end.
+
+"Jack, dear old friend, after requiting your tender love to my exacting
+and selfish boyhood with a pitiless treachery that will always shame my
+manhood, I wonder if I dare ask it back, if I dare come to you."
+
+"There is nothing to give back. I do believe I have kept up a sort of
+girlish hankering for you. And now, if I can do any thing, if you are in
+any perplexity"--
+
+"Come up to Hope Terrace, and take tea with me. I want to talk to you
+all the evening. You have just the same mesmeric strength that used to
+soothe me when a boy. What a milk-and-water cub I must have been! I
+wonder you did not throw me over."
+
+Jack laughed.
+
+"Let us turn back to Kit Connelly's, and I can send a message home, so
+that mother will not keep tea waiting."
+
+That done, they strolled on together the same path by which Fred had
+come. The sun had dropped down behind the hill, and the glowing tints
+had faded to purple-black and indistinct grays. They wound around the
+hills, and came up to the very gate where their last good-by had been
+uttered. And Fred remembered then that this was the first time Jack had
+shared the hospitality of Hope Terrace, now when it was no longer his.
+
+Mrs. Milroy gave them some supper in a pretty little apartment which had
+been the servants' parlor, and was now hers. Then they went up to Fred's
+room, which had been opened and aired. Some of its choicest belongings
+had been taken away, but another than Fred would not have remarked this.
+And here they renewed the remembrances of the years that had fallen
+between.
+
+"It seems cowardly to come to you in trouble, and to take so large a
+share of your sympathy again," Fred said with his good-night. "But you
+always were so strong and earnest."
+
+He went down to the mill the next day, and was much interested in the
+working of Jack's plans.
+
+"You found your place," he said with a curious intonation, as if he half
+envied the man before him.
+
+"Yet in all truth I should not have chosen this," Jack answered with
+honest gravity. "But, when I found circumstances would keep me here, I
+resolved to work at it persistently and faithfully; and I learned in it
+the larger lesson of the true dignity of labor. If I should solve my
+problem successfully, I can ask no more. Five years is a long while when
+you count the days," and he smiled.
+
+"You will succeed, I know. You have just that mastery over every thing."
+
+Jack finally persuaded Fred to come down to the well-remembered cottage,
+and see his mother. Mrs. Darcy would have welcomed her bitterest enemy
+if Jack had desired her to.
+
+All this time Jack was thinking whether he could do his old friend a
+good turn. He hated to offer him any subordinate position in the mill.
+At present he could attend to the book-keeping. Then he heard there was
+to be a change at the paper-mills, and went over. They wanted a clerk
+and foreman, one with taste enough to select pretty designs, and who
+could keep books.
+
+"I do not know as you would like it, Fred," he continued with some
+hesitation in his cheery tones.
+
+"I have been a dawdler long enough, and I have had a bitter experience
+in finding _any thing_ to do. I shall be glad to take it, and you may
+believe I will try my best. Many, many thanks for your kind interest."
+
+There had been a sharp, short struggle in Fred's soul. He would rather
+have gone elsewhere, where he was not known. But if fate had resolved to
+bring him back to Yerbury, if she had offered him bread here, while it
+had been stones elsewhere, he would certainly be a fool to starve for
+pride's sake. Some wholesome ideas had found lodgement in his brain,
+along with the Greek myths and synthetic philosophies. If he could not
+astonish the world with brilliant reasoning, he might at least get his
+own living.
+
+He went back to the city, and discussed the project with his mother and
+Irene. She had a tender longing for her son: to be with him would afford
+her greater satisfaction than the magnificence of her daughter's house.
+Irene consented stonily. It was burying herself alive, but then no one
+would torment her with hateful marriages. To stay here with Agatha was
+simply unendurable.
+
+Mrs. Minor made no further comment than to say she did not think her
+mother could be kept as comfortable. Irene was her own mistress.
+
+So Fred Lawrence went back to Yerbury and work. It was an altogether new
+undertaking. He had no business training and no experience, except his
+desultory two months in Bristol's office. Yet from the very first day
+there was something that interested him here, although for awhile the
+smells, the dust and disorder, half sickened him. As for any wound to
+his pride, he felt that less because the whole world seemed to have
+taken a general overturn. Half of the elegant houses in the neighborhood
+of Hope Terrace were for sale, and shut up. Expensive country mansions
+to be used for a few summer months were quite beyond present incomes. A
+month at the seaside cost much less. Costly scientific, or rather
+unscientific gardening,--since the true aim of science must be the best
+adjustment of power to the desired result,--graperies, green-houses,
+henneries standing empty, the money lavished upon them so much waste
+material at present,--where had the wealth gone to so suddenly? He could
+not understand the rapid and wide-spread ruin. Even of themselves,--how
+was it that for years there should be no stint, but absolute
+wastefulness, and then nothing at all?
+
+He was so new to any business results, that he seemed like a child
+groping in the dark. And here was Jack Darcy, with his academy training
+merely, managing one of the great problems of the day, taking hold
+manfully to right the wrongs brought about by selfishness and utter
+disregard for one's neighbor. Had Plotinus struck the grand key-note
+when he said he "was striving to bring the God within us in harmony with
+the God of the universe"? For might there not be false gods within?
+
+He found he had not much time for abstruse speculations, which was all
+the better for his mental health. After enduring the dirt and disorder
+of the office for a week, he set about remedying that. He might not be
+able to regenerate the world, but he could make one little room decent.
+The office-boy and the scrub-woman were called in; the desks and shelves
+were cleared of the accumulation of months, and presented quite an
+orderly aspect. He found his hands blistered by the rough handling, but
+the reward was a wholesome hunger and a good night's sleep. Not quite as
+entertaining, perhaps, as a scramble in the Sierras or the Alps, but
+productive of as beneficial results.
+
+Then there was a home to be found. Living at Hope Terrace on a thousand
+a year would hardly be possible, even if it could be had rent free. So
+he asked Mrs. Darcy's advice about the matter, and she proposed a pretty
+cottage,--there were so many standing empty. It seemed very queer to be
+counselling this proud, sad-eyed young man, who a year or two ago had
+hardly deigned to look at them. Yet, like Jack, she still held a tender
+feeling for the pretty, enthusiastic boy she remembered.
+
+There had been in his mind a great struggle about Sylvie. He knew now
+that she belonged to Jack. That thorough manliness and integrity, that
+earnest, unflinching soul, the rich, generous temperament that could be
+so tender to weakness, so forgiving to wrong, was the soul of her ideal
+hero. And he had dared to offer her his poor, paltry affectation of
+love! Blinded by his own arrogant self-esteem, he had spurned the pure
+pearl, and taken the empty, glittering shell to her as the kind of
+treasure he was satisfied to deal in.
+
+How thoroughly he despised himself! It was such a keen, bitter
+humiliation! Not only that he had aspired to her, but that he should
+have misrepresented and traduced Jack, not from an overwhelming passion
+of jealousy,--that might be pardoned,--but a shallow, overweening vanity
+of wealth and position.
+
+"She shall see that I have learned to respect and honor him!" he said to
+himself with an intensity of regret that was very honest and real. "If I
+can never regain her esteem, I shall at least try for my old place in
+his regard."
+
+They found a pretty, convenient cottage, quite on the opposite side of
+Yerbury, suiting Fred much better than to be near his old friends. The
+furniture was brought over from the great house; and, though it had
+seemed but odds and ends there, it was amply sufficient. Irene's piano
+and some of the old family silver had been saved out of the wreck, a few
+of the less expensive pictures, and sufficient books to form quite a
+library. Fred really enjoyed arranging and planning. It was quite a
+matter of astonishment to him, that rules of art and harmony were needed
+at every step: if he could not make them remunerative in a written
+article, he could put them in practice here.
+
+He kept much to himself, being busy in the office during the day, and at
+home in the evening. He was sick of society, of the world in general. He
+had met Maverick a few times, but he shrank from strangers. Mrs. Darcy's
+tender, unobtrusive motherliness, he enjoyed, but he did not dare to
+accept much of it. The duties of his life were marked out plainly before
+him, and he must not swerve from the path. It was to be a kind of
+neutral tint, twilight rather than sunshine; and the joys he might come
+to long for, he must put away with a firm hand.
+
+The first of December every thing was in readiness for his small
+household, even to the tidy housekeeper Mrs. Darcy had found for him
+among her poor. Mrs. Lawrence and Irene came in the promised train; and
+he met them with a carriage and a multiplicity of wraps, although it was
+a bright, pleasant day. His mother clung to him with tremulous hands: he
+realized more than ever how much she had broken in the past year,--very
+little older than Mrs. Darcy if counted by years, but whole decades if
+judged by every other point.
+
+Irene was cold and stately. She did not like coming here,--neither did
+she like staying at Mrs. Minor's. Wild thoughts had flooded her brain of
+going somewhere, and under a new name making a mark in the world. She
+had a fine voice, and a decided talent for histrionics, but how to get
+to this place where fame and fortune would be at her command? How to
+bridge across any chasm? Nothing, she said to herself, but just stand
+helpless, and see the great world go on, with no part nor lot in the
+matter. If she must be buried alive, as well at Yerbury as anywhere.
+
+There had never been any sentiment between her and Fred; in truth, none
+of the Lawrence women ever were given to sentiment. She walked into the
+little parlor with the step of a queen, and gave a cool stare around.
+
+"I hope you will like it"--with some hesitation. "There is your piano.
+And mother's room looks as it did at the Terrace, with the exception of
+its being so much smaller. And here is a library. Here is our
+dining-room--some of the old engravings, you see."
+
+"Could I go to my room? Which is it, Fred?" and his mother looked up
+with a weak, pleading smile.
+
+"Yes: let me carry you. You are so thin and light now, and you must be
+fatigued after all this journey;" and, taking her in his arms, he bore
+her up-stairs.
+
+It was a pleasant room over the parlor, with an alcove toward the south,
+in which the mid-day sun was shining. A bright fire burned in the grate:
+there were her own easy-chairs, a bit of the carpet she had once chosen,
+the Persian rug she had admired so much when Fred first sent it home,
+the bed with its snowy drapery, and little ornaments with their familiar
+faces.
+
+"It is delightful," she said, still clinging to her son's arm. "And I am
+to stay here with you? Agatha is very good, of course; but I have always
+had my own home, and if I did sign it away it was to save your poor dear
+father. I don't see how things could have ended so, only, if he had
+lived, it would all have been different;" and she wiped away the tears
+that came so easily now.
+
+Fred put her in the chair nearest the fire, and began to unfasten her
+wraps. He had been quite an expert in delicate ways during his
+prosperity.
+
+"Your room is next--there," nodding his head to the open doorway, and
+glancing up in his sister's immovable face. "I hope I made my divisions
+rightly: I thought you would like to be near mother."
+
+"It is all as well as it can be, I suppose," she answered with weary
+indifference.
+
+There came to Fred Lawrence just then a painful sense of want and loss,
+a far-reaching sympathy in something that had never been, and now, when
+the outside glitter was torn away, left life cold and barren. Was human
+love so much?
+
+His mother went on in her weak, inconsequent way, yet her foolish praise
+was very sweet to him. He had been living such a lonely life for months,
+that even he was grateful for something that looked like home, for a
+woman's figure flitting about, and some voice beside his own.
+
+The dinner-bell rang presently.
+
+"I ordered yours brought up here," said Fred; "and I will have a little
+with you, then I must go back to the office."
+
+"It is terrible, Fred! That you should have to"--
+
+"Dignify labor," and he laughed. "Mother dear, I was so thankful to get
+something to do! And I am proud of making a home for you. Am I not your
+only son?"
+
+"But a clerk!" Some of the old Hope disdain spoke out there. "I cannot
+bear to think of it--with all your education and talents and genius. I
+wish you had found some business. There is the five thousand dollars of
+the life-insurance, you know; and you could take it, though Agatha made
+me promise that I would not have it fooled away in any thing. But I
+should be glad to have you use it."
+
+Fred stooped suddenly, and kissed her on the forehead. There _was_
+something in mother-love, after all.
+
+Just then Martha West came in with the tray. Fred drew out the folding
+breakfast-table that his mother had so often used, while he was
+introducing Martha to his mother and sister. She courtesied, and
+proceeded to lay the cloth and the dishes, and disappeared for the
+viands themselves.
+
+"Is one woman expected to do all the work?" asked Irene at length.
+
+"She thinks she can--with so small a family. Of course I"--
+
+Irene raised her hand deprecatingly. "Spare me details," she said. "It
+is very bitter to eat the bread of dependence: I have learned that
+already."
+
+He made no answer. Mrs. Lawrence looked from one to the other in
+helpless bewilderment, but Martha entered again, and changed the
+troubled current.
+
+It was quite a picnic dinner. Irene unbent a little at the sight of the
+rare china and beautiful old silver. She supposed every thing had gone
+down in the whirlpool of ruin, and that humiliation would be complete in
+delft and plated ware. Then she ventured to glance around.
+
+Fred chatted gayly, making talk. It had not used to be one of his
+accomplishments in his magnificent days when women vied with each other
+in the delight of entertaining him. It was pleasant to see his mother
+touch the bell, and sit back in her chair while Martha brought in the
+dessert.
+
+"And now I must go. Do not expect me much before seven. I wonder if you
+will feel able to come down to tea? Ah! there are the trunks, just in
+time. I will send them up, and you will feel quite at home when you have
+your belongings in place."
+
+Then he went back to his desk, and for the next two hours was too busy
+to think. After all, there is nothing like energetic employment to keep
+dismal forebodings out of one's mind.
+
+But that evening after supper, when they had gathered in the library,
+Mrs. Lawrence began to question him concerning Hope Mills. Agatha had
+said some one had started the business anew.
+
+Fred explained.
+
+"But how could the workmen do it alone? Your father never trusted them,
+Fred; and I am sure my father had trouble enough with them in his day!
+They were always an ignorant, unreasonable set. Don't you remember how
+they struck several years ago, and workmen had to come from elsewhere?
+They must have some head. And who found the money? Mr. Minor says they
+cannot possibly succeed."
+
+Some time Fred would have to stand Jack Darcy on his true pedestal. As
+well do it now, and have it over.
+
+"The project was Mr. Darcy's. I believe he had most of the capital. It
+was very generous of him to risk it in such times as these."
+
+Irene looked up from her moody contemplation of the fire. A dull flush
+suffused her face.
+
+"Not Jack Darcy," she said,--"Sylvie Barry's great hero."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Sylvie Barry!" re-echoed Mrs. Lawrence, and she looked sharply at her
+son. "And she gave you up for him! Who is he?"
+
+"He used to be in the mill," answered Irene, with all her olden scorn.
+"His father was there also. And the Darcys"--
+
+"The Darcys can boast as good blood as we!" exclaimed Fred, his face in
+a sudden heat. "And Jack Darcy is a gentleman by birth, by instinct,
+and, best of all, the impulses of a true and noble heart."
+
+The discussion recalled an old remembrance to Mrs. Lawrence. She looked
+vaguely at her son as if she were not quite certain, as she said,--
+
+"Was there not something about him when you were boys? He was coarse and
+rough, wasn't he? and Agatha used to worry. I knew it was only a boy's
+folly; but she was glad when you went to college, and I think--there was
+his sister"--her maternal instincts taking alarm.
+
+"No, he never had a sister. His father died, and he staid at home. His
+mother was delicate, and his grandmother old. She is dead, and he gets
+his small fortune from her. No, he was not coarse nor rude, but he was
+my champion in boyhood, my hero then; and it is the shame of my life
+that I should have let him drop out of it because I was the richer of
+the two. I despise myself for any thing so narrow and unmanly, and yet
+he was generous enough to forgive. I do not wonder at Miss Barry's
+choice when she contrasted us, and I honor her to-day for her
+discrimination. She never encouraged me, blind, idiotic fool that I was!
+and I have only my wretched vanity to blame. He is fully worthy of her,
+and that is the highest compliment I can pay him."
+
+"Very magnanimous for a rejected lover," commented Irene with a touch of
+sarcasm.
+
+"But you _did_ love Sylvie?" Mrs. Lawrence said, bewildered by his rapid
+defence.
+
+"I blush now at the thought of having offered her such a paltry regard.
+To me she will always be a sweet and peerless woman. I am glad she will
+have the strength of manhood to lean upon, the purity of its honor to
+trust, the exceeding tenderness of a soul that will never know a narrow
+or grudging thought, to confide in. All my years look poor and barren
+beside his."
+
+"I can never forgive her"--
+
+"You must, you must!" and Fred seized his mother's hand, pressing it to
+his lips. "There is nothing to forgive," he went on. "You would not have
+had her throw aside the love of her life for my fancied fortune that has
+taken wings. It was my blunder. And I want to say that I have taken up
+my old friendship for Jack Darcy, come back to the truth that money is
+one of the incidental surroundings of the man, but it can never be the
+man himself."
+
+Irene's haughty lip curled, but no one openly gainsaid Fred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+THE winter was a rather open one, with but little snow. Matters were
+somewhat better in Yerbury, but bad enough, Sylvie Barry thought. The
+churches began their usual work,--parish aids, clothing-clubs, and
+sewing-societies. It was as she said: they begged from the rich to give
+to the poor. Women met to make or to alter over garments, and devise
+means to render the poor more comfortable. There were so many miserable
+homes, so many inefficient wives and mothers, who were ignorant of the
+commonest principles of economy. They could live on meal-mush, they
+could go in rags, but the science of thrift was utterly unknown in many
+instances.
+
+Sylvie had done her share of church work as a growing maiden. Every year
+there had been some mission, and a sewing-school.
+
+"And yet it doesn't seem to do much good," said she. "The girls learn to
+hem a handkerchief, which a sewing-machine can do in ten seconds: they
+sew a few patches together, and perhaps make an apron. By the next
+winter they have forgotten all about it. And some of their mothers do
+not seem to care."
+
+"The mothers need educating," Miss Morgan began, with a decisive nod of
+the head. "They were married out of shops and factories, and know very
+little, and have brought up their children to know less. I'm not one of
+the kind who can see no good in the world's progress, and who want to go
+back to the days of spinning-wheels, wax polish for tables and chairs,
+and a day spent every week scouring the brass andirons and candlesticks
+and door-knobs, and various other matters; but I do think we have gone
+to the other extreme. Women dawdle away half their lives. It is of no
+use to make clothes, you can buy them cheaper; it is of no use to mend,
+to do this or that, and so they do nothing."
+
+"I was struck with a contrast I saw yesterday," returned Sylvie. "I had
+occasion to go to the Webbers,--you know the little cottage on Alden
+Street, Miss Morgan, where they always have such pretty flowers in the
+window. Mr. Webber works at satchel-making, and even in good times did
+not earn very high wages. They have a garden, in which they raise the
+most wonderful succession of crops; they keep some chickens, which they
+manage to have laying most of the time; and they have five children. It
+was quite late in the afternoon. Mrs. Webber sat by the window, making
+lace, on a cushion, at which she realizes about a dollar a week;
+Christine, the eldest girl, who still goes to school, was crocheting a
+baby's hood,--she does a good deal of work for Mrs. Burnett's
+fancy-store, and yet is a very smart scholar; Amelie, the next one, was
+darning the stockings; the boy, who comes third, was out-doors, tidying
+up the chicken-house; and the two little girls were in the corner,
+cutting and sewing patchwork, with a doll in the cradle between them.
+The house is always clean, the children are well and rosy, and play
+about a good deal, and Christine last year earned thirty dollars. Her
+mother puts half the money she earns in the bank for her
+marriage-portion. I was so glad it wasn't in Yerbury Bank! You wouldn't
+believe, that, though she is not quite sixteen, she has almost a hundred
+dollars saved up. And I must tell you, also, there was a most savory
+smell of the supper cooking. Altogether, it was so tidy and thrifty,
+with the clean, bright, and not unpretty faces, that I thought it would
+make a charming 'interior,' if only some Dutch artist could do justice
+to it in his minute, pains-taking way. Then I went to the Coles, who
+live around in the next street. The gate was off its hinges, and the two
+big boys were firing stones from the street at a post in the yard. They
+were ragged and dirty. I went in the house, and found the mother and the
+two girls in the sitting-room. I do not believe there was a piece of
+furniture whole, and every thing was dusty and shabby, with that close
+smell some people always have in their houses. Mrs. Cole sat by the
+window, in a listless manner, doing nothing. Martha had her baby on her
+lap, asleep, in a soiled and ragged dress, while she was reading; the
+little girl, who is about twelve, was cutting up some pretty pieces of
+silk into nothing, that I could see, but a general litter over the
+table. The kitchen looked dreadful. I had some baby-dresses for Martha,
+that Mrs. Kent gave me: so I unrolled my bundle, and displayed them.
+'Oh,' said she, 'they are long, aren't they! and I've just put my baby
+in short dresses.' If you could have heard the kind of helpless,
+dissatisfied tone in which it was uttered! I had half a mind to bundle
+them up, and take them back. 'You can shorten them,' I answered, 'and
+some of them will make two dresses.' 'Yes,' she answered reluctantly,
+'only I should want something for yokes and sleeves.' Then her mother
+came to inspect them, and she was rather more gracious. But I could not
+help contrasting the two families. Mr. Cole is a carpenter, and has
+earned very good wages. Martha ran a machine in the shoe-shop, bought a
+melodeon, and took two or three quarters' music-lessons; purchased a
+very handsome set of amethyst jewelry and two pretty silk dresses when
+she was married. And in the two years of her married life, her husband
+has done next to nothing, although he is a steady, pleasant fellow. Now
+he is at Pittsburg, earning just enough to pay his own board. She has
+her sewing-machine, but she doesn't know how to make any kind of garment
+decently. When they had money they bought every thing ready-made. She
+paid Miss Gilman twenty-two dollars to make her two silk dresses. If she
+had put one of them in some plain, simple garments, how much more
+serviceable it would have proved!"
+
+"Such people are hardly worth helping," Miss Morgan said sharply.
+
+"Isn't it a faulty system that makes them so?" asked Sylvie, drawing her
+brows into a little, perplexed frown. "Martha worked for two years, and
+earned a good deal of money. At one time she made ten dollars a week. It
+was just one thing,--fine stitching on shoes,--yet one would think she
+would understand a sewing-machine so completely that she could do any
+thing with it. But she actually hired part of her baby's wardrobe made;
+and the dresses she bought,--cheap coarse-trimmed things, I should have
+been ashamed of. Christine Webber wants to study for a teacher; and, as
+there is so little for girls to do, I think she will. She will make
+wiser investments of her money than Martha Cole, and think of the kind
+of wife her husband will get!"
+
+"The era of prosperity was too much for some people," said Mrs. Darcy,
+with her motherly smile. "I used to wonder six or seven years ago, how
+it was that so many middle-class people could afford a servant, or fancy
+they needed one. A little more time spent in household duties would not
+have injured the women; and, if they had accustomed the children to take
+a part, it would have been much better for them. Then so much sewing was
+hired; and, although the income looked large, the expenditures swallowed
+it all up, and no one was any better off. How few had any stock of
+underclothing, bed-linen, or useful and durable articles!"
+
+"Industry must come around in the fashion again. Even the despised
+patchwork doubtless had its uses. It taught children to sew, and to
+manage economically. I remember that I once had three quilts on hand at
+one time. The larger pieces went into the first, and so on. My last one
+was a very pretty little thing, and I saved all the scraps for it. Yet
+we often hear people laugh about the folly of cutting calico into bits
+to sew together again. Why should it not be considered honorable and
+respectable to put every thing to the best use?" and Miss Morgan glanced
+up with a confidence no one could gainsay.
+
+"That is the grand secret," cried Sylvie,--"making economy honorable.
+You never see the nice old families flaunting their best silk and their
+point-laces on ordinary occasions. Something is kept sacred. And I do
+think there is more real economy among them, than among those who
+absolutely have a need for it. If wastefulness could once come to be
+considered a sin of ostentation and low-breeding, it would not have so
+many followers. Some people do it because they are afraid of being
+thought mean; but if they could be trained to that bravery of spirit
+that makes a work of beauty out of the poorest and smallest things
+because they are well done, and fitting to the place and season"--
+
+"Bravo!" said a laughing voice as the door opened. "Mrs. Darcy, when the
+committee of ways and means have worn out your carpet by their frequent
+meetings in your charmed temple, you must insist upon their buying you a
+new one. Good-morning, ladies! Miss Barry, I set out to find you; and
+your aunt fancied you would be here, the place of all waifs and strays.
+I want you and Miss Morgan to go and inspect a room, or rather two
+rooms, to see if they will answer our purpose. Mrs. Lane had a school
+there."
+
+"Oh, I know the place!" began Sylvie eagerly, buttoning up her sack
+again, and looking smilingly in Dr. Maverick's face, that had a
+sparkling wholesomeness born of the fresh air and brisk walk. And
+whenever he caught her eye with this light in it, so friendly and
+earnest, a thrill sped through his veins.
+
+Miss Morgan was soon ready, and the three started. The place was only a
+few squares away, in a block of buildings where the stores on the lower
+floor stood empty; indeed, some of them had never been rented. Up-stairs
+there was one large room with three front windows, and a smaller room at
+the back with a fireplace, sink and water, and a large closet.
+
+"I have had the offer of this place rent free until spring," began the
+doctor. "I have also collected fifty dollars in money and
+provisions,--_imprimis_, one barrel of flour, one box of miscellaneous
+packages, rice, barley, corn-starch, &c.,--and a second-hand range that
+will be put up as soon as you decide. In return for my arduous exertion
+and great benevolence, I shall call upon you now and then for meals or
+delicacies for my sick and famishing."
+
+"You are just magnificent!" declared Sylvie, in breathless pleasure.
+
+"I am desirous of getting this experiment started; and, since we shall
+have to help the poor and needy this winter, I shall put my gifts into
+this. Now you must consider what you want for furnishing. Biddy McKim is
+to work out a doctor's bill cleaning the place; Ward Collins will let
+you have ten dollars' worth of house-furnishing goods on another bill. I
+am going to look up all my bad debts to start you two women in
+business!" and he laughed gayly.
+
+"Very good," said Miss Morgan, while Sylvie's face was still blending
+pleasure and astonishment.
+
+"We are going to reform Yerbury, you see. The parsons tried their hands
+last winter; and, though there was need enough of spiritual food,
+there's something else required as well, while we are here in the body.
+You think the rooms will do? I want you to put a large table in that
+one,"--indicating the larger with his head,--"and we'll get two or
+three long benches, and have a tea-party now and then. Well, Miss
+Morgan, now you may take the floor. I see a crowd of ideas in your
+face."
+
+"I am going to propose that when the place is cleaned, both floors shall
+be painted to begin with. Then a simple mopping up will keep them bright
+and fresh. Some idle half-grown boys can do it, I am sure; or I can do
+it myself--it would not be the first time."
+
+"I'll look over my accounts, and levy on some delinquent," said the
+doctor. "I like that idea."
+
+"Can we make out a list now?"
+
+"Why, of course. Put down about all the things you will be likely to
+need, and I will have them sent if they do over run the account. Biddy
+will come to-morrow, and clean. Now, you can hardly have the school open
+every day unless you get more assistance, so I think I should take it at
+first two days in the week."
+
+"A very good suggestion," replied Miss Morgan.
+
+"It might not be sufficiently attended to warrant more than that. My
+experience has been that nearly every housekeeper considers herself a
+finished cook."
+
+Maverick laughed.
+
+They discussed necessary articles of kitchen paraphernalia, and finally
+walked down to Collins's store, and made their selection. Early the next
+morning Bridget McKim was on the spot: the place was cleaned, the stove
+put in place, the floor given one good coat of paint. Two days after,
+the second one was added. Sylvie drew up a code of regulations. The
+school would be open Tuesday and Friday, all day. The dinner would be
+cooked and eaten; the baking, and whatever was left over, divided among
+the scholars to take home. Miss Morgan was elected president, Miss Barry
+vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer, and two in an advisory board.
+At each session two ladies were to be present, and give instruction.
+
+Invitations were sent to all likely to be interested. Dr. Maverick used
+his strong influence wisely. The idea amused some, others wondered how
+ladies like Miss Barry knew about cooking and economy.
+
+"Let her undertake to live on the money we common folk have, and she'll
+see!" exclaimed Mrs. Stixon. "Our kind don't want to learn fussin' and
+fixin' of puddens and pies and such like! Good for us if we can get a
+mess of biled potatoes and bacon. My gals'll get along athout any such
+larnin'."
+
+They opened one Friday morning with seven pupils; a discouraging number,
+Sylvie thought, when she saw the spacious room and the nice
+preparations. The bashful girls sat in a little huddle, looking very
+much as if they were afraid of being laughed at.
+
+Miss Morgan was equal to the occasion. She made a short, sensible
+address, and hoped the girls who were present would interest not only
+their companions, but their mothers and friends. Then she questioned
+them a little. Had they ever boiled potatoes?
+
+At this they all laughed a little foolishly, and looked as if the art of
+boiling potatoes was held in rather low esteem.
+
+"The dinner for the day," announced Miss Morgan, "will be boiled
+potatoes, broiled steak, and corn-muffins. Which of you girls would like
+to try the muffins?"
+
+"I never heerd of such a thing," said one girl timidly.
+
+Sylvie pleasantly corrected the speaker.
+
+"Well, you may try," said Miss Morgan. "First, read this recipe aloud."
+
+Mary Moran stumbled through it, partly owing to ignorance, and the rest
+to feeling very much abashed.
+
+"Please go through it again, Mary," said Sylvie, in an encouraging tone.
+
+This time she did much better.
+
+"Now you may prepare the table and the dishes, and one of the girls may
+measure the meal and the flour. Put the ingredients in this dish--so.
+Keep your mind on the recipe. What comes next?"
+
+Mary was quite awkward. Miss Morgan corrected the slightest mistake. The
+other girls stood around in wondering amusement, and now and then a
+little titter broke out. But Mary went on, gaining courage. The tins had
+been set on the stove, now a bit of butter was put in each one, and
+stirred around, then the dough dropped in. This was quite entertaining.
+
+"What did I say about the oven?" queried Miss Morgan.
+
+The class looked aghast a moment, then one girl said quickly, "That the
+oven-door must be hot enough to hiss."
+
+"Right. Try it and see."
+
+It was in the proper condition. Mary slipped in the two trays of pans,
+shutting up the door. "To look at them, and turn them around in twelve
+minutes, and in twelve more to try them with a whisk," were the final
+directions.
+
+The potatoes were brought out next. Miss Morgan asked each girl to pare
+one, which they did in various uncouth ways. One girl cut off the skin
+in square bits, leaving a figure that would have distracted a
+geometrician; another ran round it rapidly, leaving in all the eyes; and
+out of the six potatoes there was but one neat and shapely. Miss Morgan
+held it up.
+
+"There is an art in so slight a thing as peeling a potato," said she.
+"It is very wasteful to cut it away in this manner, or this, and
+careless to leave in the eyes. Now each of you may pare another."
+
+The second attempt was a great improvement. They were put on to boil;
+one girl was detailed to watch them, another to prepare the steak, while
+a third arranged the dinner-table in the kitchen, as the family was to
+be so small. Mary looked after her corn-muffins. They had risen up like
+little pound-cakes, and a glad smile illumined her rather stolid face.
+
+Sylvie had brought a bit of tatting along, and now took it out.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful, Miss Barry!" exclaimed Kitty Miles. "I can do just
+the plain little scallop; but I never could get these other jiggers!"
+
+Sylvie laughed, "I believe they have a name beside 'jiggers,'" in an
+odd, half-inquiring tone.
+
+"O Miss Barry, we girls can't talk nice like you!" and Kitty blushed.
+
+"I don't see why you cannot with taking a little pains. All words that
+are not names, and 'what-you-may-call-it,' and 'Mrs. Thingumby,' and
+such expressions, are the result of carelessness. If any thing has a
+name, that is the proper word to be used; and by being watchful one
+comes presently to talk in a lady-like manner. Now I will show you about
+these."
+
+"Oh, my muffins!" cried Mary, rushing to the stove. They were quite
+brown. She tried them with the whisk.
+
+"Some stick a little bit, Miss Morgan."
+
+"Push the pan back to the other side. Indian requires very thorough
+cooking or baking, or it will be soggy, and have a moist and not
+agreeable taste. Try your potatoes now."
+
+In a few moments they were done, and Kitty Miles undertook the steak.
+Mary let her muffins stand a moment or two, then turned them out. Two or
+three stuck fast, and broke: the rest were a perfect success. She was
+delighted beyond measure. They had no tea or coffee, but they gathered
+around the table, and enjoyed the meal very heartily. Sylvie desired
+them to ask any questions they liked; and by the time they were through,
+their awe of Miss Morgan had quite vanished.
+
+Afterward followed dish-washing. This was made quite a science, as well.
+They had hardly finished when Mrs. Miles and a neighbor came in, and
+through the course of the afternoon the numbers doubled. Mary begged
+that they might make some muffins to take home: Miss Morgan assented,
+and the girls had quite a gay time. But the oven was not precisely
+right.
+
+"Open the draughts a little. Although not so hot, the oven is very
+steady now. Close the draughts in five minutes."
+
+Mary forgot, and the result was that some at one end were a little
+burned.
+
+"Why, they're elegant!" exclaimed Mrs. Miles. "And what a cheap, hearty
+supper they'd make, when one has three hungry boys to feed! Mrs. Stixon,
+now, was thinking you'd go into all the fancy branches. I didn't know
+ladies ever"--and Mrs. Miles paused suddenly, her face scarlet.
+
+"Ever had occasion to practise economy!" cried Sylvie with her piquant
+smile. "They do a great deal of it, Mrs. Miles. My aunt would no sooner
+think of being wasteful in her kitchen than she would of wearing her
+velvet dress out on a rainy day. There is a neat, pretty, tasteful
+method about these things, that is as much of an art in its way as
+painting a picture, and in some respects a more important one, for the
+health of the body depends upon well-cooked food."
+
+"Since Kitty's nothing much to do, I mean to have her come every time.
+I'm sure you ladies are very good to take so much pains."
+
+The other officers dropped in. The cost of the materials used was
+ascertained, minutes of the session made, and a recipe for corn-muffins
+given to each girl. It was decided to attempt biscuit on the following
+Tuesday, and on the next meeting, bread. Then the fire was pretty well
+poked out, the stove-lids raised, and the class went home in an
+extremely interested spirit.
+
+Just as Sylvie and Miss Morgan had turned the corner, they caught sight
+of Dr. Maverick, who crossed the street to speak. Sylvie described their
+day with a few graphic touches, interspersed with much genuine mirth.
+
+"Some people were afraid to come," said he. "Before a month you will
+have your hands full."
+
+Sure enough, on Tuesday there were fifteen scholars. Miss Morgan and
+Sylvie had hardly a moment to spare until the dinner was through. Then
+the latter proposed that every scholar should bring some sewing,
+garments they wished cut out, any thing that perplexed them, or whatever
+they would like most to learn.
+
+All days were not so fortunate. Occasionally some dish would be spoiled
+by haste, carelessness, or want of attention. There were burned fingers
+and divers cuts; but Miss Morgan patiently explained her deft, neat,
+labor-saving methods. There began to be a great interest; some of the
+mothers coming in for an hour, or bringing a special dish to cook.
+Sylvie discussed the relative value and nourishment of different
+articles, the many changes that could be made at slight expense, the
+saving that a little carefulness brought about. She gave brief lectures
+on cleanliness, order, taste, and neatness; the right way and the wrong
+way of doing many things, the giving out and the taking in; the art of
+making the best, not only in such times as these, but in all times; of
+being brave and true in the lowest and smallest of life's duties; of
+throwing out false pride and shams, and the desire to appear richer or
+grander than one's means would allow.
+
+Then the last half-hour they had what Miss Morgan called an
+inquiry-meeting. Everybody was at liberty to ask one question, and those
+who knew answered it to the best of their ability. New teachers were
+pressed into the service. Dr. Maverick gave them a talk on health, and
+another on preparing food for the sick, and the special care some
+diseases required. And Jack Darcy proposed that Christmas Eve the
+cooking-school should give a supper, the tickets being at the low price
+of twenty-five cents. Every dish was to be cooked by the scholars.
+
+It created a deal of excitement. Hard as times were, the tickets sold
+rapidly. The large room had two long tables, with benches for seats. The
+first table was to be served at eight o'clock, the second at nine.
+Sylvie made a dozen of the girls pretty Suisse aprons and dainty caps,
+and they waited on the guests. Dr. Maverick offered three prizes,--one
+for the best loaf of bread, one for the best plain cake, and a third for
+the nicest and cheapest invalid broth.
+
+The room was full, and they had a very gay time. Indeed, it seemed as if
+half Yerbury turned out, either from honor or curiosity. At nine o'clock
+they ran short of provision, when they honorably decided to refund the
+money for all tickets offered after that, and explain to new-comers the
+state of affairs. But some of the young men proposed a dance; and they
+went on for the next two hours in hearty, healthy jollity.
+
+Out of ten loaves of bread offered, Mary Moran took the prize. That for
+the cake was awarded to quite a new scholar; while Kitty Miles carried
+off that for broth, three doctors concurring in the decision. And the
+treasurer found they had cleared fifty dollars above expenses, so that
+it proved a success in more ways than one. There had been a great dearth
+of amusement for the poorer classes in Yerbury this winter.
+
+"Sure, it was just splendid!" said Bridget McKim. "My boy Mike had a
+week's wages in his pocket that night, and he was goin' off to the Ivy
+Leaf to raffle for a turkey; an' ses I, 'Mike, ye niver took me out of a
+Christmas, so do it now along o' the cookin' school party, an' ye'll get
+the best bit o' turkey yes ever put in yer mouth.' An' so he did; an' he
+said it was the best show he iver was to, and he wouldn't 'a' missed
+seein' Mary Moran get the prize fur twice the money. An' so he went home
+with me, ye see, as sober as an owl, and we bought our own turkey; but
+if he'd gone to the tavern, not a cint would he had of his week's wages,
+and been drunk beside! An' he used to be swate on Mary too, so there's
+no knowin' what may happen!"
+
+The school took a fortnight's vacation. Sylvie and Miss Morgan felt that
+it was no longer an experiment. It would be put to wider uses, and
+perhaps was the corner-stone of a great work, sorely needed in this
+world; the same kind of work Jack Darcy had begun over in the mill
+yonder,--planting beacon-lights on the path where so many had stumbled
+and gone down for want of true and honest guidance.
+
+"It will have to be remodelled somewhat," said Miss Morgan. "I can't
+have you working like a slave, even if it is in a good cause. There is
+something still higher for you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+AFTER the first of January it came off bitterly cold. Coal went up half
+a dollar on a ton; and flour rose, more by the greed of speculators than
+any scarcity, or any demand for it abroad. There was considerable
+suffering, though not as much as the winter before. The men and women
+and boys and girls at Hope Mills were thankful enough for their
+seventy-five per cent, and did their very best. A spirit of economy and
+emulation ran through the whole brotherhood. Every month Cameron
+announced whatever saving had been made in different departments, and
+the hands were proud enough of it. Those who had taken their whole
+winter's coal out of the share were quite jubilant. Once a week the
+workmen had a meeting, and discussed matters a little. Three men had
+been reprimanded, but on the whole the _morale_ was excellent. Winston
+was on the alert continually, east, west, anywhere, buying here, selling
+there, seeing in every thing the promise of better times.
+
+"We've reached the last ditch as surely as they did in the war," he said
+to Darcy, rubbing his hands in great glee. "I tell you, old chap, it was
+a lucky thought of starting just as we did. You see, we shall come up
+with the good times; for I do honestly believe the worst is over."
+
+Jack smiled, but was not so sanguine. They had only gone such a little
+way on the five-years' journey. But there were some very encouraging
+rays right around them. Kit Connelly's coffee-house was working to a
+charm. Jack began to think that drinking liquors was not so much a
+besetting sin, as a natural sequence of having nothing else to drink
+when you were cold or hot, or tired or hungry. The men fell into the
+habit of going to Kit's for their midday lunch, and presently some of
+the women went over. The room was so bright and pleasant; and, with Miss
+Rose there, they were on their best behavior. In the evening Mrs.
+Connelly brought her work, and sat by the desk. Some of the younger men,
+who had no homes; as one may say, dropped in, and looked over the books.
+Once two young chaps had come up from Keppler's to have a little fun, as
+they said, and were rather noisy. Mrs. Connelly rose.
+
+"Gentlemen," she said, "you forget yourselves. This is an orderly, quiet
+house, not a tavern. If you cannot submit to the rules, you must leave
+it."
+
+"Leave it! Come, who'll put us out!" laughed the bully. "Let's see you
+try," with an insolent leer at the lady.
+
+Two men were sitting at a table just a little back of them. Their eyes
+met. Both rose; and, each seizing a shoulder of the bully, he was
+marched out before he could make the slightest resistance, his companion
+looking on in amazement.
+
+"Next time you insult a lady in her own house, you will not get off so
+easily! Just bear that in mind."
+
+The fellow uttered an oath, but the door was shut in his face.
+
+"Thank you, John Kelly, and you, Ben Hay," said Mrs. Connelly, in a
+brave voice, though her heart fluttered a little.
+
+The other young ruffian rose, and walked out quietly.
+
+"If you didn't mind, Ben Hay," she said, an hour or so after, as they
+were shutting up for the night, "I'd like to have you drop in quite
+often of an evening. The boys are hardly big enough if we should ever be
+beset by such scamps as that, and you've always been so friendly-like."
+
+"Yes," answered Ben, flushing, and casting a sheepish look at the desk,
+where Rose's curly head was bent over her accounts. "Yes, I'm at your
+service. It's enough sight cheerfuller here than in Mother Mitchell's
+boarding-house. I'll be glad to come."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+Miss Barry heard of this, and told it over to Jack.
+
+"Ben Hay is a good, plucky fellow. He used to go down at noon for beer,
+but I do not think he has been since the coffee-house was opened.
+Sylvie, do you know, I believe reformers in general would be more
+successful if they put a good and pleasant thing in the place of the
+evil they assail. Too often they leave their convert to pick his way
+alone. Hay is very much interested in the plans of the mill. The
+meetings have done this much already,--a spirit of inquiry has been
+awakened in some of the men, and they are reading up what other people
+have achieved in this line. I want them to get well grounded before
+there comes any strain. We can't go on prospering forever. That would be
+too much like fairy-land."
+
+"But every one thinks the panic nearly at an end," and Sylvie studied
+the grave face before her.
+
+"I do not want to croak," and Jack gave a little laugh that sounded
+forced, "but we have just begun to pay off our debts. Every city and
+town, and nearly every individual, is in debt. If we could pay with
+promises to pay, we might tide over a while longer; but when interest
+reaches a certain point, it swallows capital. If we can meet our
+indebtedness everywhere, as fast as it matures, well and good: if not,
+then we have only nibbled at the crust of our bitter pie."
+
+"Anyhow," cried Sylvie, with the woman's sanguine nature, "Yerbury is a
+great deal better off than it was last winter. Every one admits there
+is much less suffering."
+
+"There is more employment, and no broken bank," with a cheerful smile.
+
+"Do you know," said the young girl presently, while a faint color went
+wandering over her fair face, "that they are doing a marvellous stroke
+of business at Garafield's, even if the times are bad? Mrs. Garafield
+was down to tea a few evenings since, and she was greatly encouraged.
+There is such a rage about the new style of papering. Everybody has run
+mad on dados and friezes, and fresco patterns, bordering, and harmonies
+of color," laughingly. "And they have some wonderful new designs."
+
+"Fred is in just the right place. If he has courage to fight through,"
+and there came a curious, almost foreboding expression in the
+sympathetic eyes.
+
+"You care a good deal for him, Jack! And yet he did not use you nobly,"
+with a peculiar regret in the tone. "It is the one thing"--
+
+"Sylvie, if I forgave it, surely you can." Then he turned his eyes upon
+her, and read or rather dreamed of something in a dim, dazed way, the
+story of a bygone summer. Had it been more to her than any one thought?
+Miss Barry had hinted to his mother that Sylvie's decision in the matter
+was a great disappointment to her. There had been a decision, then, and
+one adverse to Fred Lawrence.
+
+"I hate a false and cowardly man!" her cheeks were flaming now. "And
+when you were schoolboys together,--when Agatha and Gertrude were so
+afraid he would lower himself if he looked at any boy below his own
+social position,--he used to stand up for you,--yes, he did,--and fight;
+of course not in a brutal way with fists," and she laughed at her own
+conceit, "but in that higher, finer manner, with no shield or weapon
+save his love for you. I used to like to see you together,--you so
+sturdy and manful and true, and he delicate and handsome and adoring.
+And then"--
+
+"Sylvie, I wonder if a woman can understand a man's friendship. We never
+had any quarrel. We just drifted apart. I don't believe we forgot each
+other. Circumstances took him out of my sphere, into a new one. If I had
+been there in college, going along with him step by step, don't you
+suppose he would have stood up for me in the face of his fine friends,
+just as he used to with his sisters?"
+
+"I hope so: I would like to believe it."
+
+"I am more just to him than you, Sylvie," said Jack, a little wounded.
+"I _know_ it. I don't doubt it any more than I doubt--well, myself. He
+might have come--I was always sorry to see him avoid me, and I think he
+was weak, but he never forgot."
+
+"He _was_ weak, he was worse, Jack." There was a curious cry of anguish
+in her voice, and her shoulders swayed unconsciously, while her eyes
+looked out on the summer night he could not see.
+
+"Don't get so excited over it, Sylvie," and the pleasant, cheery laugh
+seemed to bring healing on its wings. "Whatever it was, and we will let
+all that go, he made the _amende honorable_ the night we had tea
+together up there in the great house. We took up our friendship just
+where it had dropped. Men never go over those crooked and thorny steps
+of the past, they have so much work to do in the present and the future.
+I wanted then to make a position for him in the mill; but it was not
+possible, and would not have been the part of wisdom under _any_
+circumstances. Yet it seemed as if I had stepped in his place. I was
+glad to hear of this other, though Fred would have been happier
+elsewhere. Sylvie, I do not believe you realize what it cost him to come
+back to Yerbury, to walk about, a working-man, where he had driven in
+his carriage. So down at the bottom there is the temper of the real blue
+steel, which _can_ bend."
+
+"How generous you are, Jack!" There was something more than admiration
+in her tone, and yet she was wondering if she could ever forgive her
+fallen hero.
+
+"See here, Sylvie, I don't mean to question any one's religion, but I've
+often thought about the rejoicing up above, over the one who went
+astray. I do not believe we rejoice with a very full heart: maybe we are
+not heavenly enough. We can never be sure of our own strength until some
+far-reaching test is applied, and yet it may not be an entirely true
+test. It may quiver about the weak spot in our souls; but, while there
+is any feeling, one cannot be entirely lost. That is why I say he never
+forgot. And you and I ought to rejoice that he _did_ come back instead
+of going off in that gloomy, diseased, Manfred style, and upbraiding the
+world. 'Whatever his hand found to do'--that was one of grandmother's
+texts, and he went bravely at it."
+
+"I do believe you are a better Christian than I," she answered softly,
+her eyes limpid with emotion.
+
+"No. Perhaps not even a better friend;" and a smile played about his
+mouth.
+
+"A truer friend, a more generous one"--
+
+"What were we talking of?" in a sudden change of tone. "Oh, the business
+at Garafield's! Fred is a good deal of an artist, an intellectual artist
+I should say; and, though he may not attain to fame by painting
+pictures, there are many other points coming to be appreciated. He is in
+the way for usefulness; and, if he wins the bays for beauty as well, I
+am sure we shall all rejoice. I heard he had been designing."
+
+"You hear every thing." Sylvie made a capricious little _moue_. Her nods
+and gestures were so much a part of her, so piquant, decisive, and full
+of expression, when she did not intrench herself behind a studied
+dignity.
+
+"I am glad you have heard it. I was wondering how best to tell you. I
+thought Garafield's might be a stepping-stone, these hard times, but it
+may prove the veritable ladder itself. Only"--
+
+"Well!" with a trifle of impatience, as if she could not endure the
+suggestiveness of the tone.
+
+"I wonder if you understand the courage it took for Fred Lawrence to
+make a home here in Yerbury, to bring his mother and sister; for you see
+he must endure for them as well as himself. Mrs. Lawrence will always be
+an invalid, I suppose. He thinks her quite changed and softened:
+evidently she clings to him. They see none of their old friends. Miss
+Lawrence never goes anywhere."
+
+"As if one could help that!" almost passionately. "Auntie wrote a note
+to Mrs. Lawrence, and it was merely answered. They do not desire to
+receive any one. We can only let them alone, Jack."
+
+"Even then we can hardly fail to appreciate what he is doing, possibly
+suffering. I think he will come in time to win back all the regard his
+friends ever gave him," Jack Darcy said in a steady tone.
+
+Was he pleading for him? Sylvie was somewhat puzzled, the most so,
+perhaps, about herself. How much had she cared for Fred in that old
+time? If not at all, why did this feeling of shame over a fallen idol
+continually haunt her? She compared the two men in every thing, and
+sometimes was vexed to admit that Jack was the nobler.
+
+Their walk had come to an end. They paused at the gate; and a third
+person striding up Larch Avenue took in the drooping, attentive, and
+pliant figure, the strong, protecting, powerful personality of the
+other,--and wondered, as he had more than once before. Were they friends
+merely? It was not possible for a woman to see so much of Jack Darcy's
+noble, manly life, and not admire, not love, Dr. Maverick admitted. She
+showed in many ways that she did care for him. Oddly enough she
+sheltered herself under his friendly care when other admirers came too
+near. Could not Darcy see! What a blind, stupid mole he must be in this
+respect! and the doctor kicked a stone in his path with such force that
+the two turned in the midst of their good-bys, and waited with smiling
+faces for him to reach them. Not a shade of annoyance in look or tone at
+the interruption.
+
+"The queerest lovers," he thought to himself. "If I stood in that man's
+place"--
+
+Jack went homeward in a curiously speculative mood. He has always
+fancied for Sylvie some handsome, spirited knight, whose mental
+intuitions would be as delicate and refined as hers, whose enjoyment as
+intense. Little as he knew of love, he understood their friendship too
+thoroughly to be betrayed into any mistake. And he wondered now if he
+held the key to Sylvie's spiritual enfranchisement of all other men? If
+she had not loved Fred Lawrence, she had come too dangerously near it
+ever to free herself entirely from whatever thrall his soul had thrown
+over hers. She _had_ been disappointed in him, he read that from her
+tone; but surely, if he brought himself up to a finer and truer standard
+than any known in that enervating atmosphere of luxury, would she still
+be implacable? How could he best serve these two people, whom he loved
+so entirety?
+
+He had many other things to busy himself about beside love and
+friendship. March came on apace, and the balance-sheet for the six
+months had to be put in shape. The accounts had been systematically
+kept: that he had insisted upon in the beginning. Cameron knew every
+gallon of oil, every pound of wool, every penny spent for repairs and
+stock; Hurd and Yardley had kept account of every yard of cloth, and
+what quality, that had passed through their hands; Winston, of
+travelling, advertising, commissions, &c.; and Jack went over every
+thing. They had done wonderfully. There was actually a balance of profit
+to every man, woman, and child. The forms were printed, and distributed
+to every employee, and there was a great rejoicing time. They engaged
+the Cooking Club to provide them a supper, and the young people had a
+merry dance afterward.
+
+"It's hardly safe to halloo until you are out of the woods," said some
+of the solid old men of Yerbury, who were living snugly on the interest
+of government-bonds. "Six months is no test at all. Wait until there is
+a hard pull, and you will not be so jubilant."
+
+"No," answered Jack with a humorous twinkle in his eye: "it's right to
+have the rejoicing now, when we have fairly earned it. The man who
+croaks when Providence has smiled upon him, deserves the frown; and he
+who is unthankful for small successes hardly has a right to great ones.
+I do not expect all fair sailing, but we will weather the storms
+together."
+
+"It _is_ rather unfortunate," commented another wise-acre. "I have
+observed these wonderful beginnings seldom end well. If you should have
+a run of bad luck now, your men will be dissatisfied, and likely blame
+you for not keeping up to that mark. I shouldn't have made such a great
+effort, and then there would have been a chance for improvement."
+
+"A new broom sweeps clean, but it _will_ get worn out," with sundry
+mysterious nods.
+
+"I declare," said Jack to his friend and comforter, Maverick, "half the
+town looks at me as if I must have robbed a bank, or falsified accounts,
+told a lie, or cheated, or maybe murdered some rich old don, and made
+merry on his money. Why can't people rejoice with you when there is any
+thing to rejoice about,--an event which does not happen so often in
+these evil days? I do believe Boyd, and a lot of the others, would be
+glad to see the scheme fail; but I'll work night and day to make a
+success of it. It shall not go down," and Jack set his lips together in
+a way that spoke volumes for his resolve.
+
+"I have observed before that some people are fond of disparaging plans
+that they have no hand in," returned the doctor coolly.
+
+"And philanthropy is a much-derided virtue. If the old Athenian had been
+a stock-broker or a bank-director, he might not have been sent into
+exile, eh?" and Darcy laughed good-humoredly. "If I have kept a few
+people from starvation this winter, I ought surely to have as much
+credit as to have dealt around alms. As for the success, we had the
+reputation of Hope Mills in our favor, and every man had his own fortune
+at stake, and brought out the best that was in him."
+
+He sent Miss McLeod her half-yearly rent, a copy of the statement, and a
+very temperate letter. He was quite proud to think he had no need of
+accepting her proffered favor, but he thanked her again for it.
+
+She answered promptly. She had shown the statement to Mr. Hildreth, and
+he thought it remarkable. Wasn't it a trifle too rose-colored to last?
+Count on her as a friend, if evil days came; and we none of us could
+tell exactly what was in store. The financial horizon was by no means
+clear.
+
+A few others gave him words of heartfelt encouragement. The Rev. Mr.
+Marlow spoke of him in very high terms, much to Sylvie's delight, and
+said already there had been a great change in the mill-hands. The
+coffee-house he considered an especially commendable thought.
+
+There was a quiet change going on that was destined to bear more
+abundant fruit in the future. Some of the men and women had begun to
+think a little for themselves. The pupils of the cooking-school were
+beginning the A B C of beauty and neatness. Their rooms were swept
+cleaner; their clothes took on a more tidy aspect. With the opening
+spring, gardens and court-yards were cleared of their rubbish, and
+flower-beds flourished again. Sylvie gave her girls one very instructive
+lecture on slips and flower-seeds, and one Saturday they went out to
+the woods for ferns and wild flowers. It was only one little corner, to
+be sure, but it was the leaven that was presently to do a wide-spread
+work.
+
+Hope Mills took up its steady march again. Half a dozen new hands were
+added, though Jack wished that he could find employment for some of the
+poor souls that besieged him daily. If times really were coming better,
+if orders only would increase, and he could with safety enlarge his
+borders! But "slow and steady" was his motto. He was not one to
+disparage the present by exaggerating the advantages of the future.
+
+There was one home that these cordial little excitements never entered.
+The three souls in it, although they should have been very near and
+dear, wrapped themselves in their own thoughts and sorrows, and took no
+note of their fellows.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence heeded the outward change least of the three. She had her
+pretty room, her glowing fire in winter, her fur slippers, and zephyr
+shawls; her late breakfast in bed, then her luxurious dressing-gown, and
+her books. She had settled herself into the _rôle_ of an invalid for the
+remainder of her days. The loss and suffering had not taken her out of
+herself, or raised her narrow, vapid nature. She was at once patient and
+complaining,--even her affection for her son was combined with great
+mental and moral weakness. She was profoundly grieved that he should
+have been compelled to accept so unsuitable a position; but to her it
+was only a temporary event. Something _must_ happen. In some mysterious
+way they would come back to their former grandeur,--not that she cared
+especially, but for the sake of Fred and Irene. Then for days she would
+lose herself in the joys and sorrows of her heroines. To such people
+novel-reading is certainly a godsend. A readable book was as
+exhilarating to her as a splendid morning drive or a good deed is to
+many others. She had society without being bored. She had wit, poetry,
+art, music, travels, dinners, and balls, with no worry, no late hours,
+or fatigue.
+
+Irene could not so yield up her personality. She brooded over her lot in
+a haughty, bitter spirit. She uttered no complaint,--she was far too
+proud for that,--but she took no interest in any thing. Like a
+melancholy ghost she wandered up and down, or sat by the window for
+hours in a listless attitude. There were moments when she wished herself
+Lady Frodsham, times when the change and bustle of such a life as that
+of Mr. Barringer would have been heaven itself.
+
+Fred could never persuade her to go anywhere. She took no walks, except
+to pace up and down the garden path when the quiet of the house drove
+her well-nigh crazy. Once in a great while she opened the piano, and
+played as if a demon had taken possession of her soul and her fingers.
+
+Fred breakfasted early and alone. After a while he fell into the habit
+of taking his lunch in his office, and coming home to a late dinner.
+Martha was certainly the perfection of maids. The housekeeping went on
+with the regularity of clockwork: there were no complaints even. Fred
+used to sit in his mother's room until her bedtime, when he would go
+down to the library, and work for an hour or two.
+
+The utter dearth of interest would have been terrible to him but for his
+business. At first he preserved a wide and punctilious distance between
+himself and Mr. Garafield. He was the employer, to be sure; but then
+Fred Lawrence had a dignity of his own to maintain. One day, however,
+the dignity suffered a collapse. Mr. Garafield brought in some new
+designs, and they lapsed into an exceedingly entertaining art
+discussion. The employer had excellent taste, trained and shaped by
+practical experience: Fred possessed the wider mental reach and
+exquisite perception of harmony and color, the sentiment of genius.
+
+"Why do you not take up the idea, Mr. Lawrence?" asked his employer.
+"House finishing and furnishing is fast coming to be a fine art. An
+intelligent, harmonious beauty is demanded. We are leaving behind the
+complacency of mere money in our adornments, and asking for something
+that evinces thought and refinement. I am sure you could succeed if you
+once set about the work."
+
+The compliment touched Fred profoundly, roused him to a new venture. He
+practised his almost lost art of designing to some purpose: he wrote two
+or three art essays that happened to find much more favor than his
+abstruse philosophies. After all, he was young, and the whole world lay
+before him. Surely he could carve out some kind of fortune. The light of
+earnest endeavor shone in his eyes, the languid step quickened into one
+of courageous elasticity. He had dawdled away years enough: he would put
+a purpose into his manhood, that some distant eyes, seeing, might not
+relegate him entirely to the regions of contempt.
+
+"There's quite a good deal in that young Lawrence," declared Phil
+Maverick decisively. "I was in at Garafield's the other evening, and, I
+must confess, listened to a fine art lecture. All about wall-papering,
+too!" with a genial laugh. "What an education that fellow has! Couldn't
+he find any thing to do, that he must drop down upon a paper-factory? I
+am sure I should have made a big fight out somewhere in the great
+world."
+
+"'Beyond the Alps lies Italy,'" quoted Jack. "Not on the top, you
+observe, but perhaps in the valley. I wish you would be a little
+friendly with him, Maverick: you couldn't help but like him."
+
+"There is more in him than I gave him credit for. I thought at the time
+of his father's death I had never seen so useless a fine gentleman,
+with all the stamina educated out of him. I had half a mind to turn him
+over to Aunt Jean and Miss Lothrop."
+
+Darcy laughed absently, and Maverick saw that his mind had wandered
+elsewhere. How odd that these two should be friends! Maverick could not
+discern the fine bond uniting them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+SUMMER came on apace. The Cooking Club took a vacation, or rather turned
+into a gardening club, and studied the sensible part of botany and
+floriculture. People began to look at the waste land lying about, with
+envious eyes. Here and there some one started a garden, or indulged in a
+flock of chickens. The Webbers traded their snug cottage for a place on
+the outskirts of the town, with two acres of ground, which they improved
+rapidly. Men who had sold farms, and spent the money in vain business
+speculations, looked back regretfully, and in some instances hired where
+they had been proprietors. There was no money to be realized in farming,
+but if one could even make a living! No one was making money but those
+lucky fellows at Hope Mills. Of course that was a bubble, and would
+burst presently; but doubtless it was good while it lasted.
+
+Miss Barry, Sylvie, and Mrs. Darcy went away to a pleasant, quiet
+seaside resort. Miss Barry appeared to be ailing a little. Mrs. Minor so
+far relented as to invite her mother and Irene to spend two months with
+her at Long Branch. Mrs. Lawrence consented, Irene refused flatly. "She
+had no money to spend for dress, and she would accept no one's charity,"
+she declared in her haughty way. But she could not stay in the house
+forever: so she took long walks over wild country ways, angry with the
+world, herself, and every thing. A fierce-eyed, beautiful girl, clinging
+desperately to her isolation, and yet eating out her very heart in
+loneliness.
+
+The time ran on rapidly. September came around. Hope Mills did not make
+as good a report this time. Business had been very dull. Sales were next
+to nothing. People did not need much in warm weather, and orders were
+very light. However, several other branches of industry in Yerbury
+improved a trifle. Railroads, stocks, and real estate were fast becoming
+dead speculations: so men ventured to put their money warily into
+business again.
+
+But the bottom had not been reached. Early in October there was a
+tremendous failure of an old and well-known firm of woollen-manufacturers.
+The bankrupt stock was sold at auction. Then another, and various
+smaller houses. The market was suddenly flooded. No one could sell. No
+one seemed to need new garments of any kind. Men wore their old clothes,
+and shrugged their shoulders in a sort of contemptuous content, as if
+they had suddenly found a great charm in a half-worn, shabby overcoat.
+Robert Winston went hither and yon. Not a piece or a yard would any one
+take.
+
+There was a great deal of discussion in various daily journals. The
+business had been overdone again. Foreign markets must be found. We
+could not compete with foreign manufacturers. Our wool was inferior, our
+looms were inferior, our men knew so little, and demanded such high
+wages. Then we never could do any thing under the present wretched
+tariff and the skinning system of taxation. It took all a man could
+make. Another sapient statesman declared nothing could be done without
+more money. The contraction had been so great that not a man could do
+business. Then came a long list of figures to prove what a very little
+money was left in the country. Newspaper war raged, first on this side,
+then on that. If we did this, we would surely be ruined: if we did not,
+then ruin was inevitable.
+
+Jack used to try for some light, no matter how faint. It seemed to him,
+if the great men at the helm of the national ship would set to work
+vigorously to widen and strengthen the commerce of the nation, instead
+of discussing such frivolous issues, prosperity might dawn once more. He
+went over his political economists again, and realized sadly that men
+had always disputed these points, and that each writer or prophet was
+sure his was the only creed that would ever save the world, while by
+following any other they would surely go to ruin.
+
+Winston and he took counsel together: then they called in Cameron, who
+looked blue enough.
+
+"Any ordinary factory would shut down for the winter," said Winston
+ruefully; "but that would be to confess our scheme a failure. We are
+piling up goods--but for what--a grand auction-sale by and by? And the
+men have worked so cheerfully--no, we can't give up."
+
+"Giving up is out of the question at present," Jack answered solemnly,
+as if he was passing his word at the bar. "Our balance at the bank has
+been expended, and we have some notes out that must be cared for in a
+month's time. Wages are falling, and it seems to look now as if we were
+coming back to the era of cheap living. The bargain was the ruling rate
+of wages, you know. I think they will have to come down."
+
+"I will not give up beaten," declared Winston. "I'll have one more try.
+Keep up heart, shipmate."
+
+With that Winston started West again. He talked, he plead, he offered
+for the mere cost of production,--just to get the money back would be
+something. The coal-venture of this winter had been much larger, though
+coal was declining, and the profit somewhat less. Everybody pared the
+margin to the mere skin. Winston had a little luck, however. Two sales
+of some note were effected, and a barter, that only a man with a shrewd
+eye for bargains, and a glib tongue, could have managed. Flour, apples,
+and potatoes were the stock this time. The workmen took them gladly, at
+a little less than store prices. They knew how full the wareroom kept
+all the time.
+
+The first of January, wages were lowered. There was a little grumbling
+among some of the men, but the women took it in wiser part. The
+half-loaf was much better than no bread at all. They remembered the
+dismal year when there had been no employment, and stinted food
+purchased on credit. One wouldn't starve with flour and potatoes, nor
+freeze with a full coal-bin.
+
+Hope Mills had exhausted every source,--had even paid a horrible
+discount, being hard run,--when Darcy wrote to Miss McLeod a true
+statement of affairs. If they could hold out until spring, times might
+be better. They were economizing as they never had before: yet the time
+had come when disaster really stared them in the face, unless they could
+find a true friend.
+
+Miss Barry had generously offered him her store and her credit. Though
+there had been a time when she withheld Sylvie, and fancied Jack Darcy
+not quite the equal of her pretty niece, that time had long gone by. She
+knew now his genuine worth,--she had tested his integrity. Of course
+Sylvie would drift that way; and so, by many delicate turns, she showed
+Jack that she could trust him with any of her treasures.
+
+"You are so good," said the honest fellow, with tears in his eyes,--for
+he was touched beyond measure. "If I can't get through I will gladly
+accept, unless the prospect is so bad that it would be sure to
+jeopardize any one's money. But I hope it will not come to that."
+
+How breathlessly he waited for Miss McLeod's answer! The morning's mail
+did not bring it; night closed in without it. A chill drizzle had set
+in, freezing as it fell, and the keen air fairly flayed one's skin. Yet
+he dreaded to go in-doors, to hear his mother's pleasant voice. Cousin
+Jane had been called away by the illness and possible death of a
+relative, so they two were alone.
+
+When Mrs. Darcy saw her son so grave and pre-occupied, his eyes sadly
+pathetic with trouble, mother-like, she tried to comfort with the small
+talk that women often offer, and that answers the purpose like bathing
+one's brow with Florida-water in a severe headache. She never mentioned
+business to him when in such moods. Now it was a bit of
+newspaper-gossip, concerning some discoveries in Greece, that he and
+Maverick had been quite eager about.
+
+The poor fellow was distraught, and could not listen. He ate his supper,
+choking down the food, for her dear sake, missing strangely Cousin
+Jane's pungency and seasoning. Then he tried to interest himself in the
+paper, but could not; he paced the floor softly; he whistled a tune, for
+his mother's benefit also, but broke down in the middle.
+
+"I must go out a little while," he declared in desperation.
+
+"Not in this storm," said his mother pleadingly.
+
+"Yes. I'll be back by--ten," looking at the clock. "It is too bad to
+leave you alone," with sudden regret, kissing her tenderly.
+
+"I shall not mind for a while. But this wretched storm"--
+
+He laughed, a little strained and forced; then he put on his great-coat,
+almost wishing that every man in the country was without, and had to buy
+one to-morrow. He tramped up the street, drawing long respirations,
+every one of which was nearly a sigh. Was this the way Mr. Lawrence felt
+when times went bad? Was some such trouble the cause of that fatal
+disaster? He bowed his head in a sort of touching and profound respect
+to the dead man. He experienced an earnest sympathy for all struggling
+capitalists. What did unreasoning labor know of such nights as these
+when every thing, even good name, was at stake! He wondered if his mop
+of curly hair would turn gray, and then, in a ridiculously trivial
+mood, remembered he must go and have it cropped. As well now as any
+time; but when he reached the barber's, the place looked so uninviting,
+with the smoky kerosene-lamps turned low. He did not stop: he used to
+wonder afterward how it would have been if he had, until he came to have
+a sincere and reverent belief in God as the disposer of human events,
+the Hand back of the curtain, that guided every step, and kept sacred
+watch even over two sparrows.
+
+He walked down past Maverick's; but half a dozen people were in there,
+so he went on and on to the very end of the street, when by the dim
+light he saw a figure in advance of him, a woman, tall and stately,
+muffled in a waterproof and hood. There was something in the bearing
+different from most of the Yerbury women who ran out of an evening for a
+neighborly gossip, or some provender for their next morning's breakfast.
+There were no stores in this direction; it was quite lonely; perhaps she
+was going home. It would annoy her to be followed, doubtless; and on
+such a night as this no roughs would be abroad in this vicinity.
+
+Jack Darcy was in that nervous state when the brain seems rarefied and
+empowered to wrest secrets from the very elements in his path. He
+pursued several chains of thought at once, with lightning rapidity, and,
+with curious mental inconsistency, dropped them, and lapsed into others.
+Now a sudden interest sprang up in this wandering traveller. He listened
+with the wariness of an Indian to her step. It had in it the essential
+principle of flight, but a baffled, fruitless longing for escape, rather
+than a nearing to some distant haven or goal. He had not used to be so
+keen in this subtile discrimination, until Maverick crossed his path,
+and helped him out of his psychological bondage. And ordinarily his
+senses had not the electric keenness of to-night.
+
+The figure paused. The face seemed to turn to the drear, blank sky--was
+it in appealing, or a desperate daring? an impotent resistance, or a
+wild, agonizing prayer? The hands were thrown up: he had come gradually
+nearer, and could see them, ghostly white in the long feeble ray of the
+distant lamp. What was she deciding or asking? A shiver ran over him as
+the thought of suicide entered his brain. At all events, he must not let
+her go to destruction.
+
+Her hands dropped. She took a few slow, irresolute steps, then turned
+and came so quickly, that before he could stir or think, she confronted
+him. A wild face with staring eyes, a wilder shriek ringing out on the
+night air, making muffled echoes around, a desperate plunge, and a fall.
+He sprang and essayed to raise her from the half-frozen hail-bed of the
+sidewalk; the hood fell back, and he was more than astonished at
+beholding the face of Irene Lawrence.
+
+He appeared suddenly to comprehend the whole fact, though he came to
+know afterward that he misjudged her. Only a desire to put an end to
+life and suffering, real or fancied, could have brought her out this
+night, in the lonely neighborhood, still, not so far from her own home.
+He must take her back, and then go for Maverick, who had become quite a
+favorite with Mrs. Lawrence, and prescribed harmless remedies for her,
+since she insisted she must have them.
+
+Jack Darcy never experienced a more exultant pride in his strength than
+now. He lifted the helpless form, settled the swaying head on his broad
+shoulder, and, clasping the body tightly, picked his way through the
+slippery streets, in a manner that would have done credit to an Alp
+climber. Round this corner and that, to the quiet, deserted street,
+where every window was closed, and perhaps half the inmates in bed. Only
+in one house was there a sound of life. Some one was playing an
+accompaniment for an evening hymn, and youthful voices were singing.
+Two lines floated out as he passed, making a kind of glow on the sullen
+night:--
+
+          "Though long a wanderer,
+              The sun gone down"--
+
+Unconsciously he tightened his arms around this wanderer. Of course all
+their brief acquaintance had gone through his mind, especially the day
+when in her haughty pride and beauty she had given him that cold,
+insolent stare; but he forgave her freely, just as he had forgiven
+Fred's sin, unasked. How strangely he was destined to be mixed up with
+these Lawrences!
+
+He paused on the low porch, where a honeysuckle rioted in summer, and
+was still full of withered leaves. His burthen had not stirred, and was
+a dead weight. Resting it against his knee, he pulled the door-bell
+gently, and waited.
+
+"Is that you, Mr. Lawrence?" asked a voice from within.
+
+"No. Jack Darcy," for he guessed rightly that it was Martha.
+
+She opened the door.
+
+"Don't be frightened, Martha," in a re-assuring tone. "It is Miss
+Lawrence."
+
+"Oh, good heaven!" in tones of terror.
+
+"Hush! do not disturb any one. Is Mr. Lawrence home? Where shall I carry
+her? she is in a dead faint."
+
+"Bring her in the parlor. Oh, Mr. Darcy! where was she?" with a look of
+wild affright. "I did not know she had gone out. I always felt something
+would happen to her; and a long while ago I offered to go out with her,
+but she is so hard and disdainful that one soon comes to letting her
+alone. She made me promise not to tell her brother, or rather she defied
+me to: she wouldn't put any thing as a favor if she was dying. Talk
+about the pride of Lucifer! And I knew it would worry Mr. Lawrence
+dreadfully."
+
+"Was she in the habit of going out--alone--at night?" asked Jack, in
+amaze.
+
+"I think it was from pride," answered Martha simply. "You see, she
+needed some exercise, and she seldom went out in the daytime. And I
+don't think she is afraid of any thing. I never saw such a cold, bitter,
+strong girl--for she is only a girl yet. I've sometimes felt afraid she
+would do something desperate. Oh, if she would only let the Lord help
+her bear her trouble! And Mr. Lawrence is so kind and generous! He would
+do any thing for her. Oh, he ought to be home! There's the clock
+striking ten."
+
+"And I must run for the doctor. Heaven grant she may not be dead! Take
+off her cloak, and try something"--glancing about in alarm.
+
+Then he seemed to take one devouring look at the sculptured face, with
+closed lids, and jetty lashes sweeping the marble cheeks. Hurrying away,
+as if by some great effort, he ran down the street again, despatched
+Maverick, and hastened to Fred's office. The building loomed up dark and
+silent. He might possibly be at Garafield's house: he often went there
+of an evening, he and Mr. Garafield were so engrossed with their plans.
+
+It was a long walk; but Jack strode on, getting rapidly over the ground.
+The hall-door was open, and Mr. and Mrs. Garafield were saying
+good-night to Fred. Jack waited until he came down the steps, and then
+called to him cheerfully. They linked arm-in-arm. The hail and rain had
+turned now to fine, hard snow, and the wind seemed to scurry through the
+deserted streets like a forlorn, wailing spirit.
+
+Jack told his story briefly, also repeating what Martha had said about
+Irene's habit of lonely walking. He felt the sensitive nerves in the arm
+he held, quiver with a shuddering pain.
+
+"Thank God it was you!" Fred said, with a great, tremulous gasp. "She is
+so strange, so cold and self-contained,--so bitter against fate! Believe
+me, Jack, I have tried my utmost"--and the voice broke with something
+like a sob.
+
+"I know it, dear old fellow," drawing him nearer as the blast whistled
+around them.
+
+"We never learned to make each other happy, you know. We never supposed
+we had any special duties to one another, so it was a new task to me. I
+tried to interest her in something, to make her more cheerful; but she
+would wrap herself in that haughty, unconquerable coldness. Yet if I had
+known or guessed"--
+
+"After all, there is very little danger down your end of the town," said
+Jack, in that light, comforting tone. "There's nothing to call tramps or
+roughs; and, I dare say, to-night all would have gone straight if she
+had not run against me, as one may say, and the fright made her faint."
+
+"But if it had been some one else! Oh, my God!"
+
+"It was not; so never give that a second thought. There is no use in
+bringing up an army of 'might-have-beens' to worry you to death when you
+have escaped danger. And--here we are."
+
+"You will come in, of course?"
+
+Jack followed his friend. Maverick had succeeded in restoring Miss
+Lawrence to consciousness; but she was now in a burning fever and raging
+delirium. Outraged nature had at last asserted its sway.
+
+"It is better so, I think," remarked Maverick, in a quiet, decisive
+tone. "She will have a severe run of fever, for this has been some time
+coming on; but she has youth and a naturally fine constitution in her
+favor. I believe she will pull through. But some arrangement must be
+settled upon. It will not do to take her up-stairs; for the effect upon
+your mother will be too great a risk. If you could bring a bed down
+here--to-morrow I will see about getting a nurse."
+
+"I think it would be better to bring her bed down stairs," rejoined
+Martha. "The parlor is used so little. And she would be so much more
+comfortable"--
+
+Martha's eyes went over the heavy, clinging dress, the disordered hair,
+the bracelets that were like manacles as she threw her arms about,
+moaning, muttering, and laughing shrilly. The eyes rolled wildly in
+their senseless stare, until one's blood almost curdled.
+
+"We must get about it immediately," began Dr. Maverick. "She will be
+quieter presently, and I shall remain all night. Darcy, you watch her:
+do not let her injure herself, while we bring down the necessary
+articles."
+
+Just at this juncture Mrs. Lawrence's bell rang. The noise had startled
+her from her first sound sleep. Dr. Maverick explained simply, and gave
+her a composing draught.
+
+"A fever! Is it any thing contagious? Yes, it is better to keep her down
+there: my nerves are so weak, and I think I have a very sensitive,
+susceptible nature. I might take any disease so easily,--do you not
+think so, doctor?" and Mrs. Lawrence looked up from her frills and laces
+and snowy pillow with the helpless air of a child.
+
+"Much better. She may be delirious, too, and that would distress you.
+Now be as quiet as possible, and try to go to sleep again. I shall
+remain to keep you both in order," with a laugh.
+
+"That is very kind," she answered, with a pretty wave of her delicate
+hand. Her daughter might be dying below, but her nerves must be settled
+and cared for. Still, to do her justice, even in her intense
+selfishness, she never considered other people's ailments dangerous,
+while she held that her own precious life was constantly in peril. She
+talked of dying with the calmness of a saint, and admitted that there
+was no further charm to life, but still she must have the choicest care.
+
+Under Martha's supervision they soon dismembered the bedstead, and
+brought down all necessary belongings. Jack had watched his charge,
+strangely exercised by her curious, changeful moods. Once she had looked
+meaningly at him.
+
+"I _might_ marry you," she said, in soft, mocking tones, her scarlet
+lips taking on a bitter, scornful smile; "but I should come to hate you
+so that some night when you lay asleep I should rise and murder you! I
+might endure you in London, where I could be in a continual round of
+gayety; but at Frodsham Park, with an old man like you,--May and
+December! May and December!" and she laughed shrilly.
+
+She did not mean _him_, then! Honest Jack Darcy blushed to the roots of
+his hair, to his very finger-ends. Some old man had wanted her: well,
+she was braver and truer, then, than most people would admit.
+
+The three came in, and transformed the parlor to a hospital-ward,
+without the simplicity. Jack suddenly thought of his mother, and hurried
+away. What an eventful walk it had been! and Hope Mills was quite driven
+out of his mind.
+
+He found his mother frightened and hysterical; and drawing her down
+beside him he told her the story of his wanderings, expressing with some
+tender kisses his sorrow for her alarm, and advised her to go to bed at
+once, as he meant to do. And, though it might not be romantic after such
+an adventure, I must admit that in ten minutes my hero was soundly
+asleep, oblivious of both storm and business.
+
+At the house he had left, there was but little refreshing rest. Mrs.
+Lawrence drowsed away when the confusion of re-arrangement had subsided.
+The gentlemen retired to the library while Martha disrobed her young
+mistress with inward fear and trembling, hardly being able to judge
+what was due to delirium, and what to natural imperiousness. Then Dr.
+Maverick kindly dismissed her.
+
+"You will need your strength in the morning," said he. "Try to get at
+least one good nap."
+
+He took his station at the bedside, and motioned Fred to an armchair
+just out of his sister's range. The opiate was not working successfully,
+but at present he did not consider it wise to increase it. He questioned
+him a little as to Miss Irene's habits and resources, and imagined the
+part withheld, from that rather reluctantly admitted. He understood that
+here kindred blood had not produced harmony, but a horrible discord, the
+more wearing in that every note had been muffled. The self-commiseration
+of the mother, and her weak love for her son that could only pity, but
+never encourage or brace to any vigorous effort; her total inability to
+comprehend any such character as her youngest daughter possessed; the
+wearisome platitudes enunciated in the belief that they were golden
+grains of worldly wisdom, the only kind she supposed existed; the weak,
+vapid repining that she had not married when she might have done so
+well, the discouraging certainty that no marriage was possible in this
+second-rate town, and that to remain single was a stigma and a
+misfortune. In her weak but querulous complaints, which she meant in
+part for sympathy, she had worn and exasperated Irene as much as Mrs.
+Minor: only here there were no lovers, and there Mrs. Minor looked upon
+every single man of means as a fish to be skilfully angled for.
+
+If Irene had been thrown completely upon her own resources, if she had
+been compelled to step entirely out of her olden sphere, and earn her
+daily bread, there would have been a sharp, bitter fight, but the
+bracing mental atmosphere might have dispelled the thick darkness, the
+chilling vacuity, and evolved from the discordant elements a questioning
+and not easily satisfied soul, but one destined to develop into
+strength and nobler uses. But here, she said to herself, there was
+nothing. Friendship could not come to her aid--she would have none of
+it. No one should study her with curious eyes, to see how she bore her
+trials, her losses, the downfall of her pride. Strangers who had glanced
+at her with envy in her pretty pony-phaeton, or the magnificent family
+barouche, should not smile in triumph as they saw her walking by. As she
+had scorned others in her grandeur, so others would rejoice that she had
+been brought low. She had seen so much of the narrowness, the petty
+spite, the sharp stings of the world, that her sensitive flesh shrank at
+every pulse.
+
+She could understand now how high-bred women, when friends and fortune
+had flown, had shut themselves in convents. That she would have been
+glad to do. Any entire renunciation would have met with her approval.
+But to gather up the threads of a commonplace existence, to find joy and
+solace in daily duties, to work for others, to even show others how
+trials and misfortunes could be borne to the perfect working-out of
+nobler aims and uses, was not for her. She had never been trained to any
+such purpose. A heathen of the heathens in a Christian country, the
+product of fashion, wealth, and so-called refinement.
+
+In the solitude to which she condemned herself, she came to brooding
+over a desperate, worldly philosophy. Should she go back, and retrace
+her steps, and marry? There were days when she absolutely contested the
+ground inch by inch, and almost decided.
+
+Her long rapid walks, generally at night when her brain was wild with
+the bitter warfare, had served a useful purpose, and kept her in better
+health. But the strain could not last forever. For days she had
+alternated between a chilly, stupid languor, and hours when her brain
+seemed on fire, when, indeed, she hated the whole world with a bitter,
+awful intensity. In this mood she had stolen out for her walk.
+
+And now the outraged soul had burst its bonds, and revelled in a fearful
+revenge. All the ache and repression put upon it; all this silent
+endurance; all the solitary hours of maddening thought, the wasted
+riches, the spurned sympathy, the youth poisoned by false
+doctrines,--every secret sin committed against it, cried aloud, and
+would not be throttled, nor thrust back into the dreary dungeon.
+
+Fred listened to her ravings in stunned, helpless astonishment. His
+trial had been so much less intense, after all. Could it be possible she
+had suffered this as she sat so like a statue in the little circle,
+disdaining every aid? His startled eyes questioned the doctor.
+
+"Yes," was the reply: "she has been too much alone. She has brooded over
+these things until she has become morbid and imbittered. The curse of
+fashionable life is, that it provides a woman with no resources against
+a dark day, no wisdom, no faith in any thing outside of herself. And
+then we wonder at insanity! A thousand times better that the body should
+be racked with pain, if so be that the soul is purified in passing
+through these fires. It may be her salvation."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+THE morning's mail brought to Darcy the letter he had hardly dared
+expect. It was brief but cordial. Would he come to New York, and the
+matter could be arranged to his satisfaction? "He had not been very
+eager to ask favors."
+
+"We'll weather through, Winston!" he cried joyfully. "I must go to New
+York. Miss McLeod has sent."
+
+Then he ran off home, and arrayed himself in spotless linen and
+immaculate cuffs, complained a little that Jane Morgan should be away,
+and begged his mother to ask in some of the pretty, friendly girls
+living in the next house, if he should not be home to supper. There was
+a late train that he would be quite sure of, if the business detained
+him until night. Then he kissed her tenderly: she was still a little
+shaken from her last night's vigil.
+
+He went around by Maverick's office, though it took him out of his way;
+but he must hear some word of Miss Lawrence.
+
+"She is very ill, and will be for some time to come; but I am
+wonderfully interested in the case. It's a brain-fever. The girl is a
+study in herself. She has the force and power, and capability of both
+suffering and endurance, that would answer for half a dozen souls; but
+it has come pretty nearly to a wreck. Did you ever know much about her?"
+
+"No. I once spent an evening with Miss Barry when she was there," and
+Jack flushed. "It was before Mr. Lawrence died. They used to be great
+friends, you know."
+
+"And it ended like most women's friendships, eh?" with a peculiar light
+in his eyes as he spoke.
+
+"No: it broke off in the middle; regards have a trick of doing that when
+they're not ended, you know. Sylvie is very generous: she would go there
+to-day if she were needed."
+
+"Would she? She may be before it is all over."
+
+"Go down and tell her, Maverick, when you are in that direction."
+
+Maverick nodded.
+
+Darcy was just in time to catch his train. There had been quite a fall
+of snow from midnight to dawn, and the trees were glittering with
+thousands of diamond-sparks and patches of fleecy ermine. The winding
+roads were white; the cottages and the fence-posts were hooded; and the
+snow caught all the tints of sun and shadowy lights, reflecting them
+back like a mirror. His heart was so light as they whirled along, he
+smiled, and could hardly forbear shouting at a group of boys who were
+snow-balling by the roadside.
+
+He met Miss McLeod at Mr. Hildreth's. They had the private office to
+themselves; and he related the mishaps of the past three months, showed
+her the actual figures, and admitted that times seemed really harder
+than last year. There was such a horrible shrinkage everywhere! Still
+there must be some trade presently,--it always had been so in the
+history of the world.
+
+"I think you deserve a great deal of credit for having pulled through so
+far on your limited capital," said she. "Some of the business-men I
+meet, think this will prove the hardest year in our history. It will
+winnow the chaff from the wheat pretty well."
+
+"If it does not winnow us all into chaff," returned the young fellow,
+with a touch of grim humor.
+
+"We shall come back to smaller profits and greater industry. The world
+will not be able to play at being ladies and gentlemen, and perhaps a
+little wholesome work will not be a bad discipline."
+
+Then she wanted to know what amount would be likely to tide him over for
+the next six months. He said he did not desire to exceed ten thousand
+dollars. She would make it twelve, however. After the notes were duly
+signed, she took him to her bank, and introduced him. As he had some
+other parties to see, she drove him about in her carriage, and insisted
+upon taking him home with her presently.
+
+What an elegant old lady she was in her sables and velvets, and her
+royal air! her eyes bright with spirit and energy, her cheeks a little
+pink with the crisp air, glad sunshine, and perhaps her own hearty,
+wholesome mood. Occasionally she leaned out and nodded to some friend;
+and once her carriage drew up to the sidewalk as she summoned a fine,
+portly-looking gentleman to her.
+
+"Mr. Throckmorton," she said, with gracious dignity, "I want to
+introduce my young friend Mr. Darcy, of Hope Mills, Yerbury, to you. If
+you can serve him in any business-way, I shall be glad to have you."
+
+The gentleman bowed, and held out his hand, with cordial fine breeding.
+
+"Hope Mills! It belonged to my friend Lawrence, did it not,--David
+Lawrence?"
+
+"Until his death, yes."
+
+"Sad misfortune, that. He ought to have retired years before. There was
+some villany in his manager, was there not? It is difficult to find a
+purely honest man nowadays; but I do believe Lawrence was one. We dealt
+with him a great many years, but toward the last there was some
+dissatisfaction,--goods not coming quite up to samples."
+
+"We try to do our business on the square, Mr. Throckmorton," returned
+Jack, with a proud curve of the lips that was almost a smile, and
+illumined his face. "If any thing is not exactly as represented, we
+shall make it good; but we try never to have occasion to do that. We
+should be glad to have you test our honesty and skill."
+
+"Thank you,--I will, I will;" and, touching his hat to Miss McLeod, they
+parted.
+
+"If men were as generous as you!" cried Jack, with enthusiastic candor,
+"how splendid a place this world would be for business! Did you ever
+have a jealous thought in all your life?"
+
+She laughed brightly. "I have had nearly all the things I wanted," she
+answered, with tender solemnity. "There would have been little excuse.
+Mr. Darcy, we do not always realize how hard life is to some; and, where
+everybody's man's hand is against one, it is natural for him to be
+against every man."
+
+Their four-o'clock meal was an elegant little dinner. They were quite
+alone, which pleased Jack. She questioned him about Maverick, his
+practice, his friends, and wondered if he ever meant to marry. Jack said
+laughingly no one in Yerbury dared to make fascinating eyes at him.
+
+Did she care so much for Maverick? Surely these two ought to be
+together, yet what would _he_ do without his trusty comrade?
+
+They veered round to the mills presently, and discussed honesty. Jack
+admitted that Mr. Throckmorton and other customers had a right to
+complain. There had been a deal of cheap wool used, and many poor
+workmen employed, during Eastman's last year or two.
+
+"Mr. Darcy," she began energetically, "why do you not think up something
+new? We import pretty material for ladies' wear, that could as well be
+made here, for we women are growing sensible enough to believe something
+beside silk admissible. And though men may cling to superannuated coats,
+with an affection most commendable in hard times, I never heard of a
+woman being attached to an old gown."
+
+"I never thought of it," he admitted frankly.
+
+"That is what you were put in the world for,--to think," and she smiled
+with quaint humor. "Invent something. I'll take a sample to every store
+to match, and lift my brows in surprise when clerks confess they have
+not seen it. Give it a pretty name, of course."
+
+"That is worth considering, surely;" and his eyes sparkled. "Hope Mills
+ought presently to be the grandest place in the country, you take so
+much interest in it," and his whole face expressed his admiration.
+
+"I do hope to see you a successful manufacturer, Mr. Darcy; and,
+woman-like, I want the scheme to succeed. I should like to see even a
+small party of men trained to honesty and fair play. And, if I lose my
+money, it is no worse than a downfall in stocks."
+
+"I shall do my best now and ever," he answered heartily.
+
+They parted with much warm gratitude on the honest fellow's side. He
+took the evening train for home; and his mother had a good cup of tea
+awaiting him, along with her smile. He related his grand good luck, and
+there were not two happier people in all Yerbury. When the bank found he
+had an account at New York, and a good backer, they were extremely
+affable again.
+
+Jack broached the new idea to Winston and Cameron.
+
+"To be sure," admitted Winston. "Some one will do it presently, and we
+might get the lead. Darcy, your old lady is a trump, and always carries
+the honors. There will have to be some new processes: see here, talk to
+Ben Hay about it; he's made two or three improvements, and has some
+brains. Gad! It'll be quite jolly to have a new line of goods. Get the
+ladies on your side, and you're all right!"
+
+He had not a spare moment until after his late supper, when he told his
+mother he must run over to the Lawrences, and stop a moment at the
+doctor's, though he had despatched the good news to him in the morning.
+
+He found matters worse than he had feared. There had been an alarming
+change in Miss Lawrence. Martha ushered him through the hall to the
+library, where Fred was sitting. The two clasped hands, and then sat
+down together. A hard, dry sob seemed to tear its way up from Fred's
+very soul.
+
+"Jack," he cried in a strained, despairing tone, "could I have done any
+thing to save her? I have been engrossed with my own affairs, my own
+dreams of advancement. I wanted to have money again, but it was for her
+sake and my mother's," with a lingering tremulous intonation. "She has
+been too solitary, she has brooded over every thing. But she would not
+go out, or see any company; and somehow it was our misfortune to grow up
+without any warm, vital interest in each other. When I was a boy I used
+to like it at your house, because your father and mother took such a
+real delight in you. It is the pith of life. Poor father--he was very
+proud of me, he gave his life for our pleasure and grandeur and reckless
+extravagance, yet all the later years we were well-nigh strangers. Why
+can't people get nearer to each other, Jack, or is it only given to the
+very few? Does the greedy world swallow up every sentiment, every bit of
+tenderness, and make a mock of it?"
+
+"No, no! Nothing can quite kill it, thank God! You and I have proved
+that. It may be smothered under dust and rubbish, and frozen with
+neglect, but the germ will revive,--just as the brown woolly ball
+evolves the fine delicate fern-leaf that it has held in its heart
+through winter storms, you know. Don't blame yourself. Every soul has to
+fight its own battle somewhere, with no day's-man between but God. We
+get back to the old truth in spite of the new philosophies, and own in
+our vanquished moments that we cannot _make_ strength, that ours is
+only a broken reed, and the true upholding force must come from some
+knowledge higher than our own."
+
+Jack paused, strangely stirred in every fibre. He seldom essayed
+sentiment: with him the deeds of life had to answer, rather than any
+eloquence of words. He laid his strong, warm arm over Fred's shoulder,
+the old boyish caress with which he had often comforted unknowingly.
+
+"I think you have been doing nobly," he went on presently. "I did not
+look to find you so brave and persevering, so earnest in thinking of
+others; for, after all, a man's training does throw a great many
+shackles about him."
+
+Dr. Maverick entered at that moment. He had hurried off his
+office-patients to come and spend an hour watching this case, which held
+a fascinating interest for him. Some most unfavorable symptoms had
+supervened, but he did not despair. The nurse had been regularly
+trained, he had kept her busy in Yerbury the last year. He could trust
+her to note the slightest variations.
+
+Just now Miss Lawrence lay in a heavy stupor, so like death that one
+could not detect it from any motion. Her eyes were half open, her face
+had a dull purplish tint. The abundant hair had been confined in a thick
+plait, and brushed straight across her forehead. How distinct and finely
+clear the brows were pencilled, how haughtily sweet the curve of the
+pallid, fever-burned lips, how exquisitely round and perfect the chin,
+the slope of the throat and neck! Jack stole one glance,--they had both
+gone in with the doctor,--but it seemed almost sacrilegious, now when
+she was powerless to frown the intruder out of her presence. And he had
+carried her in his arms!
+
+"O Darcy," Maverick exclaimed presently, "I did not go to Miss Barry's,
+after all. I have been so desperately busy to-day."
+
+Fred glanced up, and his eye met that of his friend. Both flushed, and
+both mistook the cause.
+
+It was a curiously auspicious moment. Jack went over to him. "I wonder,"
+he began, with a marked persuasiveness in his tone, "if you would like
+to have Sylvie Barry come over? She and your sister used to be such
+friends. And, in times like these, animosities and foolish prejudices
+ought to die out."
+
+Fred gave him a startled look, and half turned, his lids drooping to
+veil the secret in his eyes. Jack waited with breath that half strangled
+him. He had marvelled how these two souls were to be brought into
+friendly contact again; how Sylvie was to have an opportunity of knowing
+that Fred was redeeming the manliness of manhood, instead of grounding
+among its trivial shoals, and, if she ever had cared for him, to
+understand that he was not utterly unworthy. He had spoken--what if the
+chance should fail!
+
+Fred very naturally misinterpreted the emotion. Jack offered this out of
+the boundless tenderness of his heart, so confident was he of Sylvie's
+regard.
+
+"You think--she would come?"
+
+His own voice, under the great stress, sounded miles away to him, quite
+as if some other person had spoken.
+
+How often the tense strain of feeling is relieved by a tone or an
+incident quite out of the magnetic current!
+
+"Some one ought to drop in occasionally, for your mother's sake," said
+Dr. Maverick. "We shall have her in a fever from sympathy," putting the
+fact more delicately in words than it was in his thought.
+
+"She would be glad to come, I know. She would feel hurt if-- You empower
+me to ask her?" with an abrupt transition of tone.
+
+Fred Lawrence bowed his head. He could not trust his voice.
+
+The sick girl started, opened wide her eyes, threw up her arms, and
+began in weird, passionate tones, as if it were a stage declamation. Oh
+the lurid thought that seemed to travel from regions of bliss to the
+nethermost hell; to display a boundless capacity for enjoyment, for
+pleasure or pain, for tenderness and bitter, brilliant satire, a keen
+knowledge of the world to the very dregs,--the dust and ashes! She
+implored her lost idols to come near, and in the next breath she tossed
+them from her with a mocking laugh. She had no faith in God or man, and
+before her was a blank wall of despair.
+
+Jack led him away. He took him out in the keen air of the starry winter
+night, and began to talk of Hope Mills and the new projects. It was too
+late afterward to call on Sylvie, so he waited until the next morning.
+
+She was inexpressibly shocked. "Of course she would go," she made
+answer; and she went that very afternoon, with her aunt for companion.
+
+They found Mrs. Lawrence in a dreadfully disturbed and apprehensive
+state. She was so weary of solitude that she welcomed them gladly, quite
+forgetting this girl had insulted her by rejecting her son. In a weak,
+shuffling manner she excused herself for not having accepted their
+overtures before. She had been so utterly overwhelmed by the death of
+Mr. Lawrence, that, in her state of nervous prostration, it had been
+impossible to see any one. And now she was positive she should take the
+fever. Her health was so delicate, her nerves so susceptible, and to
+hear the raving of delirium,--the laughs that were quite like a
+maniac,--would be sure to shatter her beyond any help. If it were not in
+the dead of winter, she should go to New York at once, and stay with
+Mrs. Minor until all danger of infection was over. She did not seem to
+comprehend the gravity of Irene's case, though she wept over her
+suffering in a soft self-pity.
+
+"If you could be removed to our house," suggested Miss Barry, in her
+gentle way, "we would take the best of care of you; and it must be
+extremely wearing for you here."
+
+"Ah, you have no idea! I never slept last night. I have heard of people
+in these dreadful fevers who have left their beds when the nurse was
+absent, and committed some horrible crime. I locked my door last night;
+then I was afraid I might faint away alone, and Fred had to come and
+stay with me. It was terrible!" and the washed-out eyes dilated with
+real fear.
+
+Martha was despatched for the doctor, who not only came himself, but
+brought a close coach, thankful to dispose of one patient so
+comfortably. Before dusk Mrs. Lawrence was snugly settled in Miss
+Barry's best room, where a cheerful open-front stove made amends for a
+grate, and the new surroundings served to take her mind from her late
+apprehensions. Indeed, she felt so much better for the change, that she
+insisted upon coming down to tea.
+
+It was beneficial in many ways. They removed Irene again to her own
+room, and used her mother's for various convenient purposes. Sylvie went
+back and forth, and shared the day-watching, beside entertaining Mrs.
+Lawrence. The two dropped insensibly into their olden positions. Sylvie
+listened patiently to the death, the loss of fortune, the changes, which
+Mrs. Lawrence dwelt upon with the exaggerating vividness of a nature
+completely engrossed with its own sorrows.
+
+Dr. Maverick had to come every day. Mrs. Lawrence had arrived at that
+stage when a woman depends upon the doctor as a sort of bulletin for her
+own health. Fred, too, must visit his mother frequently; but at first he
+chose the hours he knew Sylvie would be with Irene.
+
+Dr. Maverick used to watch Sylvie Barry with an interest and admiration
+that grew upon him. Her tact was something marvellous, born of a certain
+exquisite harmony and almost divine unselfishness. But of this last she
+appeared serenely unconscious. I think, indeed, that she was. A higher
+love and faith had interpenetrated her soul, her very being. Instead of
+agonizing introspections and lightning flashes to the inward depths of
+her nature, she seemed to live continually on the outside of herself,
+radiating warmth and light as the sun. Her patience was of a rare, fine
+quality, born of health, and spirits not easily wearied.
+
+It would have been quite impossible for any two people to go through
+such a strain of feeling, and not be drawn together in love and
+sympathy, or friendship. With Fred and Sylvie it was unconsciously a
+little of all. If he had gone back with the old love, even exalted and
+refined, he would surely have blundered again. But now she was
+another's, sacred in his eyes. And though in his blind pride he had once
+thought the greatest favor he could do her would be to save her from any
+such _mésalliance_, he recognized now that Jack Darcy was immeasurably
+above him in all the qualities that went to make up pure manhood. Even
+in his work: Jack's ambition was not for himself, but a cause; and
+his--ah, how poor and paltry it seemed! So he accepted his place with
+outward bravery, and a great wrench of all a man holds most dear. For
+now he loved her.
+
+The days passed slowly on. It seemed at the last as if the fever would
+prove the victor. A consultation was held, and new remedies employed.
+Irene's beautiful hair was cut off and laid away, the clear skin seemed
+to grow brown and shrivelled, the hands lost their plump whiteness, and
+the rosy nails were dull and gray. There came a time when human skill
+had done all, and they could only wait for that Higher power to whose
+eternal force death and love alike submit.
+
+There followed upon that awful night of suspense, days when she was but
+just alive, when a turn of her head on the pillow caused a lapse into
+unconsciousness. But the spring came on; and she did rally, at first, it
+appeared, at the entire sacrifice of her regal beauty. Would she care to
+take life on such terms?
+
+They brought Mrs. Lawrence home. Mrs. Minor came up, and insisted that
+both mother and sister should be removed to the city at once. She had
+her horses and carriage, her servants, her luxuries, and she could make
+them so much more comfortable.
+
+Dr. Maverick interposed a decided negative. The body had not yet resumed
+its normal state; but the brain was to be ministered to, as only those
+of experience and study could minister. It was to be brought out of the
+hell of its own despairing self-torture, and enfranchised, set free from
+the demons that, standing in the present abeyance of weakness, had lost
+neither strength nor desire, and were only waiting the auspicious moment
+to seize their prey again. And he was too much fascinated to relinquish
+the study.
+
+Sylvie persuaded her aunt to indulge in a pony-carriage. Miss Barry was
+breaking a little; but she still kept her interest in good works, and
+found she was much more useful with this aid. Winsome little Sylvie
+looked more piquant than ever with the reins in her hands, flashing
+hither and thither through the streets of Yerbury, gathering a harvest
+of smiles and nods. She fairly compelled Mrs. Lawrence to trust her
+precious self to what she laughingly declared was superior
+horsewomanship.
+
+Dr. Maverick used to stop her often, just to catch a delicious ripple of
+laughter, or a bit of trenchant talk. If it were not for Jack Darcy--did
+Jack love her? At all events, she loved him: any one could see that by
+her frank, fearless manner. Oh, sapient Dr. Maverick, with all your
+knowledge of brains and nerves, of occult causes and mysterious effects!
+So it happens that sometimes a simple, direct truth is the greatest
+puzzle of all.
+
+The schools and clubs had not been neglected with all this excitement.
+But this winter Mary Moran had been teacher at a small salary; and a
+bakery and refreshment or dining room had been opened down stairs, which
+really made quite a little money. Wholesomely cooked food was offered
+for sale, with bread, rolls, and biscuit. The club had also given two
+successful suppers. When Jane Morgan was home, Sylvie was relieved of
+the actual care: she would have it. She had come back to Yerbury a
+thousand dollars richer for her relative's death, and she and Jack were
+drawing plans for a co-operative store.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+"I'D rather lose five thousand dollars than do it."
+
+Jack Darcy leaned back in his office-chair. He had just made up the
+third half-yearly account. It was bad enough. They had known this all
+along, and had not concealed it from the men. Now it was to be
+confronted in black and white, with searching eyes.
+
+It was not that they had not made any thing: that would have been
+endurable, considering the kind of winter. But they had gone back, and
+eaten up the profits of last year.
+
+"You see, there co-operation comes in," said Bob Winston. "It isn't
+_your_ loss alone. It's mine and every man's. That's what we agreed to
+when we went in. Labor and capital should share in the ups and downs.
+See here, Jack, I've learned a good deal myself. I have more sympathy
+with employers. Gad! what a pull we've had this winter! If it hadn't
+been for your fairy godmother"--
+
+"Well, it must be done!" and Jack pulled a long face. "There, it is all
+ready to print. Now old fellow, we must brace ourselves up for the shot
+and shell. We'll have to do the fighting all over again. If every man
+had as easy, philosophical a mind as you, or as sensible, reasonable a
+one as Cameron, I should not have so many misgivings."
+
+The statement was printed and distributed. The men looked blue and
+cross. Had they really lost nearly all of last year's balance?
+
+Winston asked them to stop one evening while he went into a slight
+explanation. He was well armed. Without having a logical mind or
+parliamentary training, he had a woman's quick intuitions, and often
+jumped at very decent conclusions with hardly a glance at the premises.
+He had a way of massing his forces, too, that was very telling.
+
+Now, after what he called a little skirmishing, he read that the
+Barnable Mills had been running on three-quarter time all winter. Wages
+had been a trifle lower than with them. Middleham Mills had been closed
+for two months. He gave the figures of loss to the workmen. Crowley and
+Dawson had gone into bankruptcy, owing their men in the aggregate more
+than all Hope Mills had used of last year's profits. Then he read a
+statement from an eminent manufacturer, that he had used fifty-four
+thousand dollars of accrued capital rather than turn off his workmen to
+starve. There had been strikes in several other places, in which the
+workmen had lost much more than at Yerbury.
+
+"So that our showing, bad as it is, is not the worst," said he. "In the
+very dullest of times we cast in our lots together, and we must take the
+good and bad. If you had been living this winter on the private capital
+of any one man or corporation, you would never have given the matter a
+thought. You know now, by experience, that capital does not always float
+on a serene and indolent sea, and gather in treasures for which it has
+cast out no net. You can appreciate the struggle we have gone through;
+though, while you have been going along placidly, with the larger weight
+of care lifted off your shoulders, a man with less energy and pluck than
+our intrepid pilot, John Darcy, might have let us founder. We help him
+now with the readiness and good-humor with which we relinquish the
+profits which were dear to us, and the product of our industry; but he
+has taken us through a very narrow channel, on a dark night, without
+striking rock or snag. He and I thank you heartily for your fidelity to
+our keystone,--co-operation."
+
+"Three cheers for Darcy!" sang out some one in the crowd, "and three
+cheers for Bob Winston!"
+
+It was given heartily.
+
+"And three cheers for the men of Hope Mills," responded Winston.
+
+They shook hands, and dispersed with a little better feeling. Several of
+the men seemed to breathe a clearer mental atmosphere immediately.
+
+"You may be sure it's right, whichever way it is," said one man
+sturdily. "I've known Jack Darcy, boy and man, and his father afore him.
+He comes of good, clean stock, and, if he says a thing can't be
+bettered, it can't; and, if it can, he's just the man to do it. Give him
+a long tether, say I."
+
+Then Winston procured a list of weekly wages ruling in this country, and
+in many places abroad, the hours of work, and the average cost of
+living, with the articles in most general use. The mill-men had their
+flour and coal cheaper, and altogether their winter was proved as
+satisfactory. This was pasted up in the hall.
+
+The matter was discussed through the town, of course. Some people saw in
+it a speedy dissolution of the plan,--a plan that never had worked, and
+never would. Others did not see that this method of getting back part of
+the men's wages was any better than any other swindling scheme. They
+never had any faith in Bob Winston,--Darcy might be honest, but he
+wasn't very bright,--and in five years Winston would own every thing
+there was in the mill!
+
+Winston laughed over the gossip. Jack could not take it so
+light-heartedly. He was an earnest, honest reformer, and hated to have
+things go awry. Winston, not believing there was very much capacity for
+reform in human nature, did not distress himself.
+
+Ben Hay, and a dozen or so others, did their best with the new cloth,
+and succeeded in producing a really creditable article. The heads
+discussed the feasibility of having an auction-sale to clear out some of
+the piles of goods; then concluded that it might be misconstrued at this
+present juncture. They could hold on until fall.
+
+But the delightful _esprit du corps_ had vanished. The men did not seem
+to work with a will. There were moody faces and discourteous greetings,
+half-insolent nods, and more than one wrangle at the workmen's meeting.
+Hurd felt anxious and discouraged. Yardley took a low fever, not severe
+enough to confine him to the house, but it made him irritable, and every
+sneer or innuendo cut him to the quick. Cameron was a great comfort to
+Jack, with his queer, wrinkled, grizzled face, and an expression that
+always puzzled you as to whether nature meant him to laugh or cry.
+
+"I am not surprised," said he, one day, in the office. "I knew we would
+have to come to just this time. A wife shares your joys and sorrows,
+gen'ally speaking; but you see there it's a force put, she can't well
+get away. Other partners like your joys, but they make a wry face over
+the sorrows, and like to squirm out of them if they can. But it is the
+only way to train men to the real responsibilities of business. Now, I'm
+sorry enough to lose, but it stands to reason that times will come
+better. We're getting through the panic; but after the battle there's
+some dead to bury, and some wounded to care for, and you see that's
+tedjus. You can't march straight home, covered with glory. Here's our
+money in the hospital, first up, then down, and all the doctors in the
+land tinkering with allopathic doses and homoeopathic doses, and
+blisters and poultices and remedies, when all it wants is a little
+honest letting-alone. It doesn't occur to these long-headed doctors that
+the best way out is to show everybody that we're willing to go to work
+and pay our debts just as fast as we can. And any fool might know that
+when you are paying up back debts you can't have much money to sport
+around on. Never you mind, Jack: we're coming out straight in five years
+time,--I'll bet my old hat on that!"
+
+Jack wrung his hand warmly.
+
+In May there was quite a jollification over the marriage of two
+mill-hands. Ben Hay took to wife pretty Rose Connelly; and the
+coffee-house parlor was denuded of tables and benches, trimmed with
+evergreens and flowers, and such a merry-making as did one's heart good.
+There was a bountiful supper, plenty of tea, coffee, and lemonade,
+dancing, and ice-cream, and the utmost good-humor and good wishes.
+Connelly _père_ had gone back to his cups, thrown up his situation, come
+home and stirred up a general "ruction," and had now gone off on a
+tramp. Ben Hay was to cast his lot with the Connelly household for the
+present.
+
+"But I tell you what it is, Mr. Darcy," said he, "if any luck comes to
+Hope Mills, in five years' time I'll have my own little house and
+garden. I tramped around a bit in the dull times, but I didn't see many
+prettier places than Yerbury. And, the more I study this business of
+co-operation, the more I think it will succeed in the end."
+
+Jack experienced a great throb of comfort when he heard such words as
+these.
+
+Another mill-hand had married Mary Moran. She was not the beauty of
+Yerbury, by any means, but everybody declared she had improved
+wonderfully, and that she was the smartest girl in town. Their
+wedding-party was given at the club-room. It was a larger and rather
+more boisterous affair; and some of the Morans' warm-hearted Irish
+friends brought a "dhrop of the craythur" in their pockets, to drink the
+bride's health. Everybody admitted that there wasn't such another
+bread-maker in town, unless it was Miss Morgan.
+
+In fact, it was quite astonishing to see what a revolution had been
+worked in this most important article of diet. The women had learned to
+distinguish between poor and good flour, and Kilburn's trade in the
+former had fallen off largely. Of the bread that in Samantha Allen's
+view "required cast-iron principle to back it up," very little was seen.
+It had been rather hard work to convince some of the mothers that bread
+wasn't naturally born into the world heavy and sour, but it had been
+done.
+
+If Hope Mills failed, the impetus to general knowledge that had been
+diffused throughout Yerbury would remain and bear fruit. An
+evening-school had been opened for boys too large to stay at home
+evenings, and just the right age to fall into temptations. It began with
+the mill-boys, but it soon drew in others. There was a short session of
+study, then a talk about some useful art or science. Maverick had
+treated them to sundry experiments, and explained many general rules of
+health. Mr. Winston had described Western cities in a vivid and
+picturesque manner. There had been some astronomy within the reach of
+all, some philosophy of common every-day things; and it had given the
+boys ideas above "high, low, Jack."
+
+Darcy tried to find comfort in this when other matters looked dark to
+him. A little good seed had been sown. The generation growing up would
+not be quite so dull and brutish. One thing was remarked,--the saloons
+were not as full. This was laid to dull times, and ascribed to the
+"revival" of two years ago; but that had not touched the poorer class of
+Irish and English, who, even during the hardest winter, had managed to
+find drink-money, when their families were being supported by the
+relief-store.
+
+Business did "pick up" a little. Prices went lower and lower, however.
+They looked at their great store of goods with dismay. If the currency
+question could ever be settled, if we could export more and import
+less,--though there were people who argued that, the more money we spent
+abroad, the more it really strengthened us, and money lying idle in our
+treasury at home was no evidence of prosperity: partly true and partly
+false reasoning; and, to our astonishment, while we were brilliantly
+theorizing how to do it, our vain and superficial neighbors across the
+water, crushed and beaten down by a useless and costly war, and a
+government of gigantic selfishness, went to work with intrepid courage
+and industry, and did it.
+
+Meanwhile it must be confessed that Jack's interests were very much
+divided. The practical part of him never lost sight of the mill. He had
+the dogged tenacity that holds on with a deathless grip until it
+conquers, or is wholly beaten. It seemed to him this summer that he had
+several distinct individualities. He was so deeply interested in Fred
+and Sylvie! They had slipped into an easy friendship,--a friendship in
+which neither crossed a certain line, but from widely different motives.
+Fred's strongest and highest one was honor toward his friend. He began
+dimly to realize that high culture and refinement of the intellectual
+senses, a perfect state of outward finish and polish, did not always
+strengthen the soul's morality and purity. Patience, self-sacrifice,
+obedience to a creed simpler in words, and yet more comprehensive, than
+any of his grand philosophies, were needed to form a strong and manful
+soul. His had been so long bound about with swaddling-clothes, airy,
+sensuous, fine as a gossamer web, yet strong in beliefs and prejudices.
+There were times when he felt, through that instinctive knowledge we can
+never wholly define or explain, that Sylvie Barry belonged to him, that
+they two could reach a point in mental and artistic life, that she and
+Jack would never attain. His whole soul cried out for her. With the
+charm of self-satisfying and blinding theories swept away, he clung
+passionately to the love that had been only a complacent fancy three
+years ago. The mere touch of her hand, or glance of her eye, quickened
+and kindled his entire soul, and made him acutely and agonizingly
+conscious of the wealth of adoration he had hardly dreamed of
+possessing. There were moments when her presence filled him with a
+heavenly satisfaction, when he understood that divine fusion of spirit
+with spirit in its entirety, when love overcame pride, and he was humble
+enough to go to her in his poverty.
+
+He tried honestly to crush out the passion, but found that neither will
+nor duty could destroy love. It rose up and swept imperiously through
+every pulse of his being, it flooded his heart like a mighty current, it
+would fain have drowned out his sense of honor to his friend; and he
+learned presently that it was of no avail to fight battles with this
+unconquerable foe. He must always love her, therefore he could only bury
+the passion out of the sight of all other eyes. To him it would be the
+root of higher resolves and purer motives. When he had made this great
+sacrifice for his friend, he had offered silently the highest atonement
+in his power.
+
+But his temptation was not to end so soon. He was to be led through the
+fire, that he might be purified and ennobled in other virtues beside
+that of abnegation. He was to learn how sacred a thing strength might
+become; he was to hold the soft hand on his arm, and never clasp it, to
+feel the pressure of the dainty fingers, and make no sign; to meet her
+bewildering smiles with the calmness of a strong spirit held in thrall;
+to listen to words that seemed cruelly pregnant with the dangerous
+glamour of hope, and yet to steel his heart against it all. In such
+times as these we come to believe in a living, loving God, who gathers
+up these great drops of agony as he "makes up his jewels," and that to
+him this pearl of inward anguish is above price. Then, of all times, we
+need to know that he cares for us, that we are not mere atoms floating
+in unregarded space.
+
+Dr. Maverick decided that his patient must have a change. She had
+attained a certain amount of physical strength while her brain still lay
+dormant, utterly exhausted after the great drain upon it. Now it began
+to act again, and, not being in sympathy with the body, consequently
+re-acted upon it. She walked about her room a little; she viewed herself
+in the mirror, a horrid shadow, a mere caricature of her former beauty.
+Dr. Maverick had tried his best to save her hair; but the fever had
+burned out its vital essence, making it dry and harsh, so he had uttered
+his reluctant edict. It was cropped short, and had lost its gloss; her
+brilliant complexion was a ghostly, sallow, opaque white, her eyes large
+and melancholy, every feature sharpened into that thin, worn, hungry
+appearance. "A perfect fright," she said to herself. Why had they not
+let her die? Of what avail was life to her?
+
+Before her illness, in her desperate impatience with circumstances, she
+had fancied herself a martyr, with the fagot and stake of a conventional
+marriage on one hand, and the dreary desert of neglect and enforced
+seclusion on the other. She had tried to make her own wretched and
+passionate imaginings consume her very soul. She could rule no longer.
+She could not exact homage and admiration from society; and, though in
+her secret soul she despised it, yet what was there to life beside it?
+No one wanted or needed her. No human being cared for her above all
+others. She had gone on in ruthless pride, trampling, crushing, and now
+the great world would be only too glad to pay her back; but it never
+should. Even in this extreme bitterness of spirit an acknowledgment of
+that divine rule of love was wrested from her. She had never offered
+love and tenderness and sympathy to others, and it would not come back
+to her: it was just and right that it should not.
+
+Why then vegetate through a narrow, dreary existence? She was only a
+drag on Fred. Even if she were willing to make an essay of work, he
+would not consent, partly from pride, but still more from that innate
+sense of chivalry, a part of some men, who would be more cruelly wounded
+to see a woman dear to them, struggling with distasteful toil, than to
+make any sacrifice on their own part. If she were a man she would starve
+in secret before it should be done. David Lawrence had in him some of
+this pure, nobly generous blood; and many of his finer virtues seemed to
+have been transmitted to these two children. The mother's individuality
+had been absorbed by the two elder ones. Gertrude would be just such a
+woman when she came to her mother's time of life.
+
+Mr. Eastman had floated into another channel of prosperity. He was to go
+to Russia as a railroad-director at a large salary, and ample chance for
+speculation. Gertrude was all elation. She wrote to Irene, generously
+forgiving her for not having submitted to be buried alive at Frodsham
+Park, and proposed that she should rejoin her as soon as she was able to
+travel. They would go to Vienna and Berlin, and spend the winter in St.
+Petersburg. "I hope your beauty has not gone off," she wrote very
+kindly. "One needs it to compare with some of the Russian women I have
+seen."
+
+Mrs. Minor had taken a summer cottage at Long Branch. Servants,
+children, horses and carriages, were to go thither. Irene and her mother
+must spend the season with them.
+
+"You do look dreadfully," she said to Irene; "but moping here will not
+mend you. It was a most absurd step for Fred to come back to Yerbury,
+and take that paltry position! He has no real Lawrence pride, and I
+don't see that his elegant education has done much for him. Why didn't
+he study law, and go into politics? With his style and Mr. Minor's
+connection, he might have filled some high position."
+
+"Really," returned Irene, with a touch of the old sarcasm, "I suppose he
+thought starving hardly a pleasant process while he was waiting for this
+high position. I have sometimes wondered why Mr. Minor did not take him
+into _his_ office, and induct him into the mysteries of stock-broking."
+
+Agatha bit her lip.
+
+"Because he did not know enough," she flung out. "And he will potter
+away his best days there at Garafield's, never amounting to any thing!
+Father had better have put him in the business."
+
+"Jack Darcy is master at Hope Mills. He was once quite a _bête noir_ of
+yours, I believe. He and Fred have floated together again, an
+exemplification of the power of early attraction."
+
+"He will not be master of Hope Mills long, if what I hear is true," said
+Agatha in a vengeful tone, as if she would be glad to bring about such a
+greatly-to-be-desired downfall. "Fred always did have low tastes. But
+about yourself: you had better come to Long Branch, and recruit for two
+months, or so, and then go out to join Gertrude. Of course, Irene, you
+know your best time has gone by here. I intend that _my_ daughters shall
+be married before they are twenty. I will not have them wasting their
+best years."
+
+There was a long pause. Agatha studied Irene's apathetical face, and
+wondered how she could have changed into such a fright.
+
+"Irene!" in a commanding tone.
+
+"Agatha, I may as well tell you,"--the voice was slow and incisive, as
+if every word was measured,--"that I shall _not_ go to Long Branch nor
+abroad. No one shall be troubled by my failing looks and possibly poor
+health. I will live my own secluded life, asking nothing of the world
+but to be let alone."
+
+"You are a fool, Irene!" Mrs. Minor scanned her with her pitiless black
+eyes, and raised her own tall figure to its most impressive height. "You
+are a deliberate, wilful fool! You will maunder and groan and sigh
+through the next few years, and become one of those wretched bundles of
+nerves and whims and conceits, a miserable old maid, whom the world
+holds up to ridicule, and rightly too; a faded, insipid, querulous,
+worn-out belle, whose past triumphs are remembered only to her disfavor.
+We can forgive a woman of mother's age, who has had her day; but the
+other shallow creatures are fit only to be bundled into a convent, out
+of sight."
+
+A dull scarlet had slowly mounted Irene's face. She did not raise her
+eyes. In an emotionless tone she merely said, "Thank you. I wish there
+were convents without the fuss of religion. I should go into one now."
+
+"The best place for you certainly."
+
+Then Mrs. Minor gave Fred a piece of her mind, and washed her hands of
+Yerbury.
+
+The result of sundry after-discussions was that Dr. Maverick found a
+pretty seaside place not many miles distant, with just enough interest
+to keep one entertained, and no fashionable, exhausting life. He managed
+to persuade Miss Barry and Sylvie and Mrs. Lawrence to go, and insisted
+upon Irene having the variety of air and scene. There was a roomy
+furnished cottage at their disposal: they could cook their meals, or
+have them sent in. Fred should come down once or twice a week, and he
+and Darcy would enliven them with flying visits. Miss Barry must take
+her pony and carriage.
+
+Jack approved of the plan at once. It would bring the two beings in whom
+he was so warmly interested more closely in contact with each other,
+give them those bits and fragments of leisurely indolence so conducive
+to sentiment. Sylvie would judge more truly and tenderly than it was
+possible to do at present; and he could not see her alone, could not be
+her companion in walks and drives, without betraying his regard.
+
+While the plan was still under consideration, Dame Fortune resolved to
+smile upon Fred Lawrence. Late in the winter he had sent a paper on
+household art, with several exquisite designs, to a magazine, and for
+once happened to hit the prevailing fancy. He was asked for a series of
+such articles, with the offer of having them collected in book form
+afterward. It more than encouraged him: it gave him a feeling of
+certainty that he had struck the right vein, that here was a fair and
+appreciative field for his talent, his fine taste, and high culture. A
+little utilitarian, perhaps; and he smiled, thinking of some past
+dreams. And was true art so ethereal that it must exist only in the
+exalted states of the mind? Was it not to embellish and beautify all
+lives, rather than crowd out the thousands that the few might feast on
+some exquisite vision? Was any art higher than that which boldly thrust
+aside shams, and went to the shaping of true, strong, faithful aims in
+the work placed before one? Were those wonderful Greek fragments,
+wrought in times of social depravity such as the world now shrank from
+mentioning, to be one's guide and inspirer, to the despising of purer if
+less sensuous forms of beauty? If one enlightened and sweetened the life
+of to-day with the work of to-day, would it not be as worthy as hugging
+to the soul some useless theory?
+
+He mentioned his new offer to Mr. Garafield. It would not be honest to
+take the time that was another's; and surely Fred Lawrence's mental
+capacity had largely cleared when he came to put into every-day work the
+fine sense of honor that he had hitherto supposed belonged only to a
+liberal education.
+
+Mr. Garafield was a shrewd business-man, although fanciful in taste. He
+should be the gainer by associating this true artist with him.
+Decorative art was coming to be a truly recognized branch; and its
+leaders and apostles would reap not only credit, but financial success.
+
+Fred was amazed. Only yesterday, it seemed, he had well-nigh been
+refused the privilege of earning his bread. To-day, in an unexpected
+quarter, prosperity opened upon him.
+
+"I have no capital, as you well know," he said stammeringly to Mr.
+Garafield.
+
+Garafield smiled and nodded in a satisfied manner.
+
+"The brain-work and the ideas are sufficient capital, Mr. Lawrence. By
+this partnership you will be free of drudgery: some other clerk can keep
+books and take orders for us. You will gain time for your literary
+labors, and those in turn will carry weight in the business. Neither do
+I think you will regret taking my offer."
+
+Fred went down to Jack Darcy's that evening, and told over his plans, as
+in other years he had confessed his college ambitions and the laurels he
+was to win. And Jack's face lighted up with honest enthusiasm, while his
+voice took on a curious little tremble. He was so glad! for Sylvie's
+sake and love's sake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+WHEN Fred Lawrence came next day into Sylvie Barry's presence, there was
+a certain proud humility shining in his handsome face, that was now
+quite worn and thin; a dignity born of honor in having achieved at least
+a standing-place in the world. He was not her hero, never had been
+indeed; and his pale face flushed at the remembrance of his once
+complacent claim to her regard.
+
+She was sitting in the room with his mother, but she sprang up from the
+low ottoman.
+
+"I am so glad! your mother has been telling me the news. Why, it is"--
+
+She had held out her hands as she began her sentence, but as he took
+them she made a sudden pause. His were icy cold.
+
+"More than I could have expected in such a brief while, hardly at all.
+Both offers have surprised me greatly."
+
+He strove so hard to render his tone calm, that it was absolutely cold.
+
+She turned with a petulant but charming gesture, while her peachy cheek
+took on a riper tint.
+
+"You are not a bit enthusiastic," in that pretty, imperious, chiding
+tone. "I suppose you think good fortune ought to fall down upon you, be
+thrust on you, like greatness."
+
+"No. I am very thankful for it. I can give my mother and sister some
+needed indulgences that it would have pained me very much to see them go
+without. How is Irene?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mrs. Lawrence fretfully. "She does mope so. I shall
+be so glad to get away."
+
+"I have just come from the doctor's. We are to start on Thursday.
+Sylvie, are you all ready?"
+
+"Yes," with a positive little nod.
+
+He stepped into the next room. Irene had been worse after Mrs. Minor's
+visit, but was the same again now, quiet, cold, impassible. It made no
+difference to her whether they remained here, or went to Depford Beach.
+She evinced neither pain, pleasure, nor interest; but she liked best to
+be alone. She endured Sylvie with rather more equanimity than she did
+her mother, but even the fault-finding energy would have been welcome to
+the doctor. Nothing mattered: that was the trouble.
+
+She heard now they were to go in two days. The cottage was all ready.
+Martha and Miss Barry's trusty handmaiden were to do the housekeeping.
+The place was so arranged, with the spacious hall through the middle,
+that each family could be by itself.
+
+"I have ordered a carriage to come every day for you and mother," Fred
+said quietly. "I thought you would like it better than being dependent
+on Miss Barry."
+
+Irene gave a slow, acquiescent nod.
+
+"Good-by," cried Sylvie, looking in. "I will run over again to-morrow."
+
+"I wanted her to stay to tea," said Mrs. Lawrence complainingly. "It is
+so dull!"
+
+"I will come up and take tea with you. I will order it at once." And he
+ran down.
+
+There was a subtle perfume in the hall. She had a bunch of violets in
+her belt, he remembered. He said over softly Ben Jonson's quaint
+lines,--
+
+          "Here she was wont to go, and here, and here,
+           Just where the daisies, pinks, and violets grow:
+           The world may find the spring by following her."
+
+But he could not follow. Had fate smiled on him to make the
+renunciation more bitter? For now he could work his way up to something
+worthy of her acceptance. And had he not learned the past winter, had he
+not been slowly learning ever since the death and loss, that the manhood
+of a gentleman was his thoughtfulness for others, his courteous
+delicacy, his consideration, often his denial of self, rather than the
+exquisite polish of cultivation, and the veneer of society's
+affectations? How blind he must have been, ever to have offered these
+last to a woman so true and pure of soul!
+
+But a still larger sacrifice had been demanded of him. He must see her
+in seductive solitudes, in still more intimate association. If he could
+stay away from Depford Beach! but that was not possible. He was to spend
+Sundays with them. But surely Jack would be there then. An almost
+careless lover he thought his friend. Was every smile so dear to him?
+
+The doctor and Fred went down with them. Darcy had decided to take a
+business trip, so presently Mrs. Darcy joined the seaside household. In
+the bygone years Mrs. Lawrence would not have deigned to notice her; but
+she found this delicate, mild-mannered, middle-aged woman very
+companionable. Circumstances had rendered Mrs. Darcy exclusive, rather
+than any inherent trait of birth or breeding. She had lived with a few
+people always, and two or three strong attachments had given to her
+character the kind of concentration that passes for strength. Yet all of
+these had been more positive people than herself; and while this had
+softened the tendency to that querulous exactingness that weak, sweet
+natures are apt to possess, it had also shaped to certain generous
+instincts that were quite free from vanity. Her natural kindliness gave
+her the charm of good-breeding, and this settled her in the estimation
+of Mrs. Lawrence. She might have possessed all the virtues in the
+calendar, but an inharmonious, unpolished turn or act would have
+tabooed her. We generally ascribe this grace to life-long culture, or a
+certain inheritance of blood, but it occasionally springs from other
+causes.
+
+The three women, with natures and aims widely different, fraternized in
+the most amiable manner. Sylvie glanced in and out between them as a
+gleam of sunshine penetrates the interstices of a wood, and brings out
+all lights and tints, itself untouched by any. Their greatest diversion
+was driving. Back of the little settlement--it was hardly large enough
+for a village, and had a powerful rival some seven miles farther
+on--there were country lanes and by-ways, sleepy-looking farms, and
+picturesquely careless houses. Below them there was a great fish
+_entrepôt_, with fishing-boats plying up and down, brawny fishermen
+trilling their musical half-chant, half-song, as they floated over the
+bay.
+
+It was curious how, presently, Sylvie came to watch for Fred. Truth to
+tell, she found Depford Beach a trifle monotonous. No interest of
+schools or clubs or young people's affairs, no strong energetic talks
+with Jack about mill business, few people coming and going that she
+cared about; the three ladies purring through the drowsy hours on topics
+that she fancied she had exhausted years ago; and Irene, between whom
+and her there had never been any real electric sympathy, and who was now
+coldly indifferent to all matters. For hours she would sit with her
+hands dropped nerveless in her lap, glancing over the wide sea out to
+the farther horizon. What thoughts were in her mind, Sylvie wondered?
+She could not even provoke her to the wordy combats of old. The flashes
+of temper and imperiousness had alike died out. She was courteously
+polite, and acknowledged all favors with a punctiliousness that built
+the wall around her still more firmly. "If one could only rouse her,"
+Dr. Maverick said; but that seemed just the thing no one _could_ do.
+
+Yet she certainly was improving in health. Her step became more assured,
+her eye less languid, and her complexion cleared up to the hopeful tints
+of renewed bodily vigor. Her slender hands filled out a trifle; and
+sometimes she would take a book, as if she needed an interest beside her
+own sombre thoughts to while away the hours.
+
+So Sylvie established her easel, and had recourse to painting. Oddly
+enough she began to ask herself what it was all for? Filling her own
+rooms, and bestowing gifts upon friends, was very well for a season; but
+was there not a higher purpose in all art, or at least a wider purpose?
+It surely did not tend to isolation. She thought of her winter in
+Philadelphia,--of the friends she had made, of the desires that had been
+awakened. She longed for some purpose, some sympathy and aim. The
+enthusiasms of girlhood could no longer inspire her: there must be a
+reality and definite end, or work lost its great charm. How was she to
+get to this? Her aunt was coming to depend upon her in a peculiar way,
+that at times startled Sylvie. She would say, with her quiet, tender
+smile, "Will you do this or that, Sylvie? I believe I am growing
+indolent: I never thought to so like being waited upon."
+
+The secret in Miss Barry's soul was well kept. In how many lives there
+comes a demand for heroism greater than that which led the martyrs of
+old to the stake, or the brave women in the reign of terror to the
+guillotine! Their inspiration to bravery was patent to all around: their
+cause was a lofty one, and they were apostles of that high creed of
+self-abnegation which leaves behind a memory in the hearts of all noble
+men and women. But there are other pangs quite noiseless: there are
+other martyrs who suffer without the sign, who cannot even confess the
+reason for the high faith that upholds them.
+
+It was quite natural that she should desire to see Sylvie married. She
+could never get over her distaste of having women taking bold strides
+for the world's fame and favor. If left alone, this was what Sylvie
+would surely do. The delicate womanly charities and kindnesses that had
+filled up so much of her life would not satisfy her niece. And, now that
+she had brought herself to the point of satisfaction with Jack Darcy,
+either she had mistaken their regard, or he was proving himself an
+indifferent lover. By a subtile intuition, she understood that Fred
+still cared for her, nay, that he held now a reverent admiration that he
+had never thought of in the past. His melancholy eyes followed her
+about, now and then scintillating sparks of passion that seemed almost
+to rend his soul. She experienced an intense and exquisite sympathy for
+him that drew them together in a manner that he felt, and was grateful
+for, but did not clearly understand.
+
+As for Sylvie, curiously enough, she was at war with herself, though she
+wore such a calm, light-hearted exterior. When she rejected Fred
+Lawrence, she was quite sure she despised the present man, and his
+narrow, futile purposes of life. Truly, to have been the wife of such a
+man would have proved irksome to the last degree. But his misfortunes
+had brought out the fine gold, the solemn strain of strength and
+endurance, that had come from his father's blood. I think even Sylvie
+had been a little mortified first, that he should have come back to
+Yerbury, and taken such a very inferior position. She wanted him to do
+something noteworthy with his pen and his high cultivation. It seemed so
+much choice material quite thrown away. Designing patterns was surely no
+high test of genius. Women with a purely technical art education had
+done it.
+
+But out of it had come this other opportunity that he had grasped with
+the pure instinct of genius. Employment for pen and pencil both, for the
+embodiment of the exquisite outward forms of beauty, and the rare,
+delicate, inward graces of imagination, for the true standards of taste
+and art in which he had been informing himself all these years; in the
+spirit of dilettanteism, it was true, but now when the intellectual
+impetus was added, and the positive need of daily bread, these
+complicated motives worked together as a strong stimulant. Perhaps, too,
+he had a not unworthy desire to show Sylvie Barry that the man who had
+loved her was not utterly unworthy or incapable.
+
+They had drifted together again in the ordinary purposes of life, which,
+after all, occur much more frequently than any grand or overwhelming
+shock. She took up the friendly, half-sisterly way, pleased with the
+instinctive deference he paid her. He understood that it would be quite
+useless to aspire to any regard of hers: that was all done with in the
+past. She could afford to evince an interest in his plans, since Irene
+cared not, and to his mother they were so much Greek, a subtle flavor
+that she admitted was the proper thing, but could not understand,--did
+not care to trouble herself, in fact.
+
+So these two young people, working in a common bond of sympathy,
+insensibly strengthened the regard that had grown with them from
+childhood. Fred gained sufficient courage to discuss some plans with
+Sylvie: she brought out her easel, as I have said, and accepted from him
+friendly criticisms. The difference between their work was soon
+manifest,--he had an earnest purpose, with breadth and scope: she had
+none. How had they so queerly changed places? she asked herself. Why
+were not her talents made of some avail, instead of this puerile
+pottering to please one's self?
+
+She began to wonder--dangerously fascinating employment to a woman--if
+he had ever cared for her. There seemed an adamantine wall built up
+around him, and yet the fruit in the inner garden was more rarely sweet
+than she had ever dreamed it could be. She could not know that the
+passion for her he had put away with such despairing hands, was
+blossoming all the sweeter, and bearing more exquisite fruit in other
+directions. She saw the lovely tenderness toward his mother, the
+unwearying patience with Irene, the fearless, animating ambition that
+seemed to have set his æsthetic desires to a steady, comprehensive
+strain of music, to which he was keeping invisible step, but which
+thrilled and roused every fibre.
+
+All this he had done without any assistance from her, she thought, blind
+little girl; as if the kinship of a true passion could not reach from
+the life that went before to that which was to come afterward! _She_ had
+not inspired his genius, but stern necessity; it had been no longing or
+desire to win _her_, but the material support of his mother and sister.
+She began to feel curiously jealous of these extraneous influences. She
+unconsciously exerted herself to make his visits at the beach more
+interesting. They drove together in her pony-carriage; they studied
+glowing summer sunsets, where fantastic clouds piled up wealth of gold
+and amber and purple and opaline splendors, and shot out arrowy,
+dazzling rays; they paced the sands after it had all faded into tintless
+space, and delicate vapors of grayish green and vague violet rose from
+the crested waves that broke far out at sea, and trooped across like
+airy spirits; they listened to the slow, regular rhythm that came
+marching from some weird country, with a grand crash at last, a sobbing
+crescendo, and an interval of silence that still pulsated on the dusky,
+odorous air, when the moaning billow was dead.
+
+They came so near to Nature, there were moments when they seemed
+empowered to wrest the shadowy secrets out of her bosom; and yet they
+did not come near to each other. Ever this distance between,--a man's
+honor, and faith to his friend, Fred Lawrence thought, never allowing
+his secret soul to swerve. There were midnights when he softly paced the
+floor, his lips compressed, his brow ghostly white, and his hands
+clinched in the throe of a man's deathless love. Then he thought he
+could not endure it, that he must stay away. But circumstances were
+stronger than will. Did God mean that this anguish should redeem that
+other old treachery, that his soul should be purified by its baptism of
+fire, a more worthy offering for his friend? If so, then he must not
+abate one jot or one pang.
+
+There were within Sylvie Barry's soul certain coquettish instincts. She
+was fond of admiration for herself: a purely intellectual regard, with
+the passion-dream flown, would soon have wearied her. A warm, bright
+nature, loving to please others, but to be pleased in return, cruelly
+hurt by surging against this rock-bound coast, piqued and almost
+angered, sent into moods of daring, seductive warmth and gayety, quite
+capable of making a foil of Dr. Maverick, who was strangely puzzled by
+her contradictory moods. But for one thing, he must have tried to cage
+the dazzling, elusive spirit: he, too, had a strong sense of honor
+toward his friend; and he could only imagine her playing sportively with
+the few who came within her radius, not setting herself to win any
+forbidden regard. What might have made some women sad and silent--the
+consciousness that an old lover had over-lived his passion--seemed to
+sting her into renewed effort.
+
+Coming back to them, Jack Darcy was more than puzzled, set at sea in a
+bewildering way, without chart or compass. Had Fred ceased to care for
+Sylvie? Had she never loved him? Or was some other feeling holding him
+back,--a kind of family complication, a sense of duty to the others so
+high that he would not offer them a divided regard, any sooner than her?
+He believed mothers had a peculiar sense of possession in their sons;
+but they surely had married other women's sons with small scruple! Mrs.
+Lawrence was warmly attached to Sylvie. In his honest, inconsequent
+man-fashion, he wondered why they could not always live together, as
+they were doing here.
+
+Fred was strangely worn and thin, with the kind of nervous alertness
+that accompanies an intent watching of one's self.
+
+"Hillo, old fellow!" cried Jack; "what have you been doing? Working
+yourself to a shadow? If high art is so exhaustive, there must be a
+little let-up. A man has no more right to kill himself in an artistic
+industrial way, than in any of the ruder forms of suicide."
+
+Fred shivered visibly.
+
+"Don't speak of suicide," he answered in a shrinking tone. "I never
+thought of it but once; and that was when I fancied myself of no use to
+the world, or myself either. I am not overworked"--and he paused, to
+study Jack a moment. Why, he was positively handsome, with that
+superabundant strength and vitality, the clear red and white of his
+complexion, the bronze beard, the healthful, honest eyes. He seemed to
+be surcharged with a magnetic current of energy and courage.
+
+"Yes, you are. I dare say you have carried your plans and sketches, and
+what not, down to Depford Beach, and pored over them until almost
+morning. You must take a vacation."
+
+"I expect to when the families return;" and he gave a faint, wan smile.
+"I have had another streak of luck, Jack. A lady, a very wealthy widow,
+is building a house in one of the pretty towns up the Hudson, and it is
+to be finished with all the elegance art can bring. She saw one of my
+articles, and sent to me; and we have been corresponding. In September I
+am to go to New York, and make arrangements. There is to be painting and
+frescoing, and rooms finished in different styles,--indeed, I cannot
+tell the half myself, until I see her."
+
+The pale face had kindled with a fine and proud enthusiasm. More than
+ever, Jack recognized the artistic refinement of his friend. What would
+law or medicine have been to him as a profession?
+
+"Humph!" grunted Jack. "A great vacation that will be! But you _must_ be
+careful, or you will not live out half your days. You've a look in your
+face like the little chap I first knew."
+
+The smile that crossed it then, Jack did not understand. It seemed to
+Fred Lawrence that half his days would suffice, when Sylvie Barry was
+his friend's wife.
+
+"Yet you see the 'little chap' lived"--with an attempt at gayety.
+
+"Yes. And, Fred, I am more glad than I can put into words, to know that
+you have been so successful. It is just the career for you. It's odd
+that a great commonplace, blundering fellow like me should have two such
+artistic friends as you and Sylvie Barry."
+
+The well-trained face did not blanch a muscle. He felt, with a flash of
+subtile inner consciousness, that Darcy was studying him. Thank God, he
+could stand before his friend free from a thought of treachery! All
+these weeks he had walked over burning coals, but the smell of the fire
+was not in his garments.
+
+Jack thought it over long after Fred had gone. Why could not these two
+people see! Surely they were meant for one another. It puzzled, it
+almost fretted him. Sylvie was so peculiar, so changed in these few
+weeks! What did it all mean?
+
+And on Saturday when he was to go down to the beach, Fred pleaded some
+urgent business to a neighboring city. He was not quite brave enough to
+see them together.
+
+"I have been meaning to go for some time," he said with gravity, "but I
+did not like to think they would be alone over Sunday. Now that you will
+be there, I certainly can spare three or four days."
+
+"See here," returned Jack,--"wait until Monday. Come, we'll have a nice
+day together down there on the sands. Sundays always seem so wonderful
+by the ocean, with the grand chant forever in your ears. The very waves
+are saying,--
+
+          "'Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.'"
+
+But Fred Lawrence would not suffer himself to be persuaded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+JACK DARCY'S business-tour, while it had not been productive of any
+great financial results, had restored his healthy mental equilibrium. He
+found other firms were having it just as hard, and that the country was
+still overrun with men willing to work for any wages. Prices were
+certainly falling. All kinds of raw products were offered at the very
+lowest figure; and, labor being so cheap, manufactured goods must
+perforce be low. Men were not now counting on a speedy return to good
+times and high prices: they began to admit that the latter were the
+outcome of extravagant speculation. They bought what they wanted, and no
+more. They gave no extensive credits, and now really appeared to be
+anxious to reach a permanent basis.
+
+"We shall have to sell most of our stock at cost," he said to Winston.
+"Lucky to get that, I suppose. And we shall come out about even--no
+profits for this six months. Still, we shall not run back, and that is
+something gained."
+
+"We can count on the new goods, I'm pretty sure," returned Winston.
+"I've had some inquiries, and sent samples. Some of the fancy
+overcoatings are to be duplicated. That looks like business."
+
+It did, indeed. Jack sat at his desk, ruminating upon it, and feeling as
+if at last they saw a light through the woods, when a step startled him,
+because it was not the kind of step usually heard through that hall, so
+he turned. It was Fred Lawrence, with a face of ashen pallor. Jack
+sprang up, dazed with the vision.
+
+"I was to come and tell you--Maverick has gone to Depford Beach--Miss
+Barry is very ill, and they have telegraphed for him. He left word--that
+we were to come."
+
+The voice had a strained, unnatural sound; and the eyes looked like
+those that have wept out a passionate sorrow, and are dry from despair.
+
+"Ill--Miss Barry--not Sylvie?"
+
+Could he speak of her in that calm tone? A passion of rage swelled in
+Fred's heart, and flushed his face. Only a moment, for the great throb
+of thankfulness that it was _not_ Sylvie restored him.
+
+"It is Miss Barry. You will go?"
+
+The tone had that peculiar, wandering cadence, as if somehow the soul
+had dropped out of it.
+
+"Certainly," and Jack sprang up, puzzled by something quite intangible
+in Fred's demeanor.
+
+"There are just twenty minutes to catch this train. The eight-ten does
+not stop at Depford, you know."
+
+"True: I will just speak to Winston"--
+
+"I will meet you at the station," returned Fred hurriedly, turning away.
+
+Much as he loved Jack, it seemed as if he could not walk to the station
+with him. A feeling of profound pity for Sylvie rose in his heart. This
+man, noble, generous, helpful, and affectionate, had not the finely
+responsive nature Sylvie Barry needed. There would be some distance or
+coldness, or, worse still, a fatal dissonance. One part of her nature
+must remain unmated: her soul would have a language in which he would
+not only be deaf, but wholly dumb. He could express no more than the
+possibilities of his nature. It was not the fine and essential
+difference between man and woman, but that more fatal gulf in which
+there would appear no certain glimpses of a royally endowed love in all
+its spontaneity, its glow of feeling, its variation of rich emotions.
+How would she, with her versatile, changeful soul, with its cycle of
+moods, ever live in the strong, steady prison of his heart!
+
+If he had thought perfect honor to his friend the greatest trial of his
+life, what was this to be? He could not stay and see the slow, consuming
+inward fire that would burn her soul to ashes while it was still in the
+body. Thank God, he could go away, would go soon indeed, and never
+return! He would nerve himself for these few days of torture.
+
+Jack waited on the platform until the last moment. The bell was ringing
+when Fred appeared, and the strong arm grasped him. They sat side by
+side, but were silent after one question as to the nature of Miss
+Barry's illness. Never had they been further divided in heart, for in
+the days when there had been no semblance of friendship the trivial
+repulsion was not to be compared to this wall of adamant. Fred would not
+have gone at all but for his mother's sake, although his heart was with
+Sylvie through every instant of her trial.
+
+The house was very quiet when they reached it. Maverick came to meet
+them, and was as sorely puzzled as Fred by the certain composure of
+Darcy's face.
+
+"It was not altogether unexpected by her or myself," Maverick explained
+in answer to their inquiries. "It is the result of a complication of
+disorders, some of long standing and incurable; and the present effect
+is partial paralysis. I hoped change of air and a quiet summer would
+delay what we knew must come before many years."
+
+Darcy was astonished beyond measure. He would sooner have thought of his
+own mother dying. True, he remembered now that Miss Barry had been about
+less, and looked rather more delicate, and that through the summer she
+had kept extremely quiet. So amazed was he, that at first he quite
+forgot about Sylvie.
+
+Fred Lawrence paced the floor in an agony. Would the man never ask the
+question that was torturing him, because he had no right to ask it
+first!
+
+"How is my mother?" was his huskily tremulous inquiry, as he still went
+up and down like a caged lion.
+
+"The shock was really terrible to her. Mrs. Darcy was invaluable,"
+bowing to Jack. "But for her, Sylvie would have been in
+despair,"--looking furtively at the broad, slightly bowed figure.
+
+"Poor Sylvie!" he murmured, "poor Sylvie!"
+
+Fred turned to the door, compressing his lips over a throb of anguish.
+
+"Of course," began Maverick, "they must all be removed as soon as
+possible. I think it would be well for Mrs. Lawrence and her daughter to
+go to-morrow. Neither is strong enough to bear any prolonged strain."
+
+"Yes." Fred's heart swelled within him. They were all to be thrust aside
+as quickly as possible. This was Sylvie's sorrow--sacred to her and
+Jack.
+
+He went to his mother's room. She was lying on a couch, and was still
+hysterical. From her he heard the story; and though, as ever, she was
+selfishly alive to her own sufferings, she evinced an almost motherly
+tenderness in her sympathy for Sylvie.
+
+Fred spoke of the return. If it could be to-morrow; if he could settle
+them in their own home, and go quite away for a while! he thought.
+
+"And leave Sylvie here alone?" said his mother reproachfully.
+
+"I do not know what you can do for--for Miss Barry." How studiously cold
+and calm the tone was! "The doctor wishes to remove her as speedily as
+possible. I thought we would be out of the way, at least."
+
+"It _is_ terrible here; and if you considered it quite right--the summer
+is so nearly ended, and the nights are growing cool,--yes, we might
+go."
+
+They settled it over their quiet supper. "Miss Barry was comfortable,"
+Martha said, "and Miss Sylvie was lying down."
+
+Mrs. Lawrence retired early, her nerves were so shattered by the
+terrible incident. Irene had disappeared; and, when Fred could stand his
+loneliness no longer, he went to walk upon the beach.
+
+It was a moonless night, but with an intensely blue sky that gave the
+Milky Way the appearance of a luminous trail across the heavens. The
+murmur of the waves seemed sad and softened, and they touched the heart
+of the man who paced beside them. Once he had held so much in his hands!
+Surely he could have won the love of this woman then. Oh the blind,
+insensate, idiotic folly! He could have thrust his own soul down here on
+the sand, and trampled the very life out of it!
+
+Hark! some one was coming with hasty strides. With the wild instinct of
+a wounded animal he turned to flee, and yet--whither should he go?
+
+The hand was on his shoulder. The well-known voice uttered his name, and
+he turned at bay.
+
+"Sylvie"--
+
+"Don't repeat her name to me!" he flung out, beside himself with
+passionate jealousy and love. And then their eyes met, the one lurid
+with an emotion well-nigh beyond control, the other wondering, pitiful,
+amazed.
+
+"Yes, let me go my way. I had not meant you to know it; but once--yes, I
+will confess it to you--I scorned you to her. God knows how I have
+repented; for I was beside myself then, blinded with my own folly and
+arrogance. And now you have won the woman I love, whom I shall always
+love, and it will be at once my bliss and my punishment. Take your
+triumph--tell her that her erring knight came back, and paid her the
+highest homage of his soul." Then, in a sudden, changed tone, freighted
+with a pain that pierced the other's heart, he cried, "Jack Darcy, I
+have made amends for that selfish blunder of my young manhood. For weeks
+I have endured such pangs, that Heaven grant you may never know! I have
+walked by her side with polar wastes between us; I have touched her hand
+with fingers that have had no more passion in them than the dead; I have
+watched her dewy lips ripe with kisses, and remembered they were for
+you; I have been true, _true_ in word and deed and desire, but in
+thought I must love her to her life's end. I will go quite away"--
+
+Up to this point his words had come with the heat and flow of a
+lava-torrent. Now his impassioned voice faltered, trembled, and seemed
+to lose itself.
+
+Jack Darcy stood transfixed. Was it a dream? Had Fred been so blind all
+this while? He essayed speech; but the lines about his mouth were
+constricted, and his breath came in quivering gasps, as the vision of
+torture, suffered for honor's sake, rose up before him. Ah! if ever he
+_had_ sinned,--and the temporary forgetfulness appeared such a little
+thing to Jack's generous soul,--he had redeemed himself nobly.
+
+"Oh! you thought--she doesn't love me, Fred,--not in that way," and his
+voice had the full, throbbing inflection of a great joy. "We are
+friends, such as a man and a woman can truly be. Do you not understand
+that some people are so alike they run in parallels? there are no angles
+to create the intense friction of love, they are so evenly balanced that
+there is no desire for possessorship, they have just as wholesome an
+influence over each other remaining apart. There is hardly Sylvie's
+equal in the world. Half that I am, I owe her."
+
+Had the night changed? Was the world flooded with a serene and tender
+light? Was the moaning ocean filled with the wondrous music of immortal
+love and longing, reaching out to glad fruition? Was that sudden rare
+peace, creating a reverential atmosphere about him, an earnest of days
+to come? He experienced a vivid lightness as if he were being borne on
+clouds, while fragments of delicious remembrances floated through his
+brain. The very refinement of his nature seemed to exalt him to that
+high heaven of love, whose solemn mysteries it is not lawful to utter.
+
+"I cannot quite understand"--in a curious dreamy tone, still spelled by
+the mastery of impassioned emotion--"how you could miss loving Sylvie;
+how she, woman-like, could help adoring you for your strength and
+heroism. Jack, if I were a woman, your very power would compel me to
+worship you. I should love you, whether or no."
+
+Jack gave a bright, cheerful laugh. "It is that kind of strength you
+like in Sylvie," he made answer. "She will always spur a man up to his
+best. Her well-trained ear is quick to detect a false note in honor,
+ambition, or love. She will never be any kind of dead weight, and yet
+she is so deliciously womanly. There was a time--don't be vexed,
+Fred,"--in a tender, pleading tone,--"when I thought you were not going
+to be worthy of her. But that is past."
+
+"She rejected me then," Fred Lawrence said simply. "I offered her my
+father's wealth, the home he had made, my own folly and arrogance and
+self-conceit; and then, Jack, she boldly admitted that you were her
+hero! When I consider the sort of man my training and surroundings made
+me, I am filled with disgust. And yet I was no worse than hundreds of
+others at the present day. When I look at my mother, Irene, and myself,
+I feel that we were the product of the so-called culture of the day,
+which substitutes shallow creeds, conventional manners, and systems, for
+all that is pure, strong, and noble in manhood or womanhood. It is the
+sort of Greek temperament on which we pride our intellectual selves. We
+revel in a glowing, sensuous enjoyment, that intoxicates the brain, and
+leads us to disdain the real work of the world. We are trained to
+consider what society demands of us; we are polished and refined, and in
+too many instances left morally weak and ignorant. No wonder so many of
+us have not the strength to buffet across the stormy sea of hard
+experience, but are lost in the great whirlpool!"
+
+Jack peered into the pale, handsome face by the faint light. Surely this
+man had to make a tremendous effort for salvation, when nearly every
+tide had been against him! He experienced a keener sympathy than he
+could express; he drew the arm within his, and they paced up and down
+again in silence, understanding dimly the sacred mysteries of each
+other's hearts, that needed not to be dragged to open day for
+inspection. In a pure friendship, faith is the highest element: with
+that there is supreme content; without it, distrust gnaws like a
+canker-worm.
+
+They heard the little church-clock striking ten, and turned their steps
+toward the house. On the porch, Fred paused a moment, while an icy fear
+seemed to wring every pulse. He turned cold with apprehension.
+
+"What if I have been deluding myself!" he cried with sudden intensity.
+"Even if you and she could not love, she may have no such regard for me
+as I desire. I could not endure her pity."
+
+A warm, hopeful, generous smile illumined Jack Darcy's face. His hand
+thrilled with an electric force and sympathy.
+
+"I have no fear," he answered; "but I will not dim the grace of your
+exquisite joy by any prediction."
+
+They entered the quiet room. Dr. Maverick came out to meet them.
+
+"Miss Sylvie is asleep," he said. "Miss Barry is comparatively
+comfortable. Hester will stay with her through the night. I have sent
+your mother to bed," nodding to Jack. "I do not know what we should have
+done without her. I shall camp down on the sofa, to be within call; and
+to-morrow we had better begin the process of removal."
+
+"I had arranged to take my family," remarked Fred Lawrence, not exactly
+certain now that it was best.
+
+"Your house must be opened and aired thoroughly, before any one goes
+into it. So must Miss Barry's. Miss Morgan will see to this, I think. I
+am compelled to return in the early morning train, for I have some
+critical cases. One of you had better remain here."
+
+He looked at Jack as he said this, but was amazed at the frank answer,--
+
+"Fred will remain."
+
+He studied Jack with almost angry intentness. Had he been so mistaken in
+the man? Could he so calmly leave the woman he loved to bear her
+terrible trial alone, or did he think his mother's sympathy sufficient
+for her? And, although there were many admirable qualities in Fred
+Lawrence, the two had never fraternized with the deep cordiality that
+must underlie all friendships. They had not the magnetic attraction for
+each other that Darcy held for both.
+
+"What do you think of Miss Barry?" the latter asked hesitatingly.
+
+"It is the beginning of the end;" and Maverick sighed, as he thought of
+the impotence of human skill past a certain point. "Miss Barry consulted
+me a year ago, and was not in ignorance; but I hoped, nay, felt assured,
+with care and quiet her life might be prolonged. She may linger some
+months, and it may all be ended in a week. Good heavens! what a shock
+for Miss Sylvie!"
+
+He took two or three turns across the floor.
+
+"Go," he said abruptly, with an imperious wave of the hand. Then, a
+little scornfully, "You will both be better in bed. Lawrence looks as if
+I might have him for a patient to-morrow; but, Jack, are you made out of
+adamant?"
+
+The thrust hurt him, but Maverick was not in a pitying mood. Indeed,
+just at this moment his temper was savage. He had witnessed the pain
+and the suffering of the woman he had begun to love, until it had been
+hard to refrain from taking her in his strong arms, and sheltering her
+from the keenest pangs.
+
+The household remained the next morning as he had ordered. He was rather
+sulky all the way up in the train with Jack; but a talk with brisk,
+pungent Miss Morgan quite restored him.
+
+"Open the houses, and build fires immediately," he commanded. "Burn up
+and blow out the confined air, that there shall be no pestilential foes
+to greet them on their own hearths."
+
+He went down again that evening. If he had been annoyed before, he was
+puzzled now. There had been no word spoken between Fred and Sylvie; but
+the now, to her, sweet knowledge had come in a gesture, a glance, that
+could no more be described than the fine pulse of love can be dissected.
+She seemed to have waited breathless for just this strength and support.
+A hasty lover might have placed himself in the foreground. It was as if
+he said, "Here is my love, take it, use it, rely upon it; you cannot
+wear it out, you cannot wound or hurt it by any thing that may look like
+coldness; it is a blessed atmosphere to surround you until you stretch
+out your hand, and draw me into your very soul. I have been trained in
+patience and humility; only let me prove myself worthy in your eyes."
+
+Three days after, they all came up to Yerbury. The evening before, Irene
+Lawrence had gone to Sylvie's room, and found her kneeling by the open
+window, her face turned heavenward in a wordless prayer for strength.
+She knelt beside her, she took the passive hands in hers, she even
+touched her own cold lips to the colder forehead of the other.
+
+"Sylvie,"--the tone still had the awful dreariness of that utter inward
+living,--"Sylvie, I have been drawn to you in this your anguish by some
+power quite outside of myself. I think we have always liked each other
+in a curious way, but we were neither of us sentimental girls. I could
+not cry over you now, nor kiss you with effusive fondness; but I wish,
+oh, how passionately I wish, I could save you one pang! I wish I could
+die in _her_ place! My life is of so little value"--
+
+"I believe God is right," Sylvie answered with a great struggle. "She
+has used her life so well; she has garnered ripened sheaves of mercy and
+kindliness and good works. There is not only golden wheat, but the
+sweetness of rose and violet, the pungent purity and strength of
+heliotrope, the use, the beauty, every thing. She is ready."
+
+"And I am not worthy to be taken even for a ransom!" said the proud,
+cold voice, not betraying any inward hurt.
+
+"God does not mean that. You are to shape your life to something better.
+Irene, did you ever think how easy it might be to die for those we love,
+but oh, so hard to live for _them_, not ourselves!"
+
+Irene rose, and stood there like a statue. Sylvie felt for the hand,
+pressed it to her lips, folded it about her chin in a softly caressing
+manner. How had Irene become dear to her?
+
+"I am no heroine, Sylvie. I have been tossed up by the breakers of
+fortune, and am out of joint, broken, bruised, of no avail."
+
+"You can comfort _me_. You can help to give me strength and sympathy.
+You can become a warm, living, active woman. There is always room for
+such in the world, and a work for them to do. God never put an idle or
+useless thing in the world, much more a human soul; and it must go sadly
+astray before it comes to despair. Irene, you will not shut your heart
+again, you will turn its warm side to me, you will take me in, with my
+great sorrow;" and she buried her face in the other's dress, with a
+shivering sob.
+
+"I will do--what you wish. I am physically strong again. Let me help
+you--anywhere, anyhow. You were so good and patient through my dreary
+time."
+
+Then she stole softly away, astonished at herself. Within was still the
+coldness of Alpine glaciers. But oh, if she might be warmed!
+
+Miss Barry's journey was performed in an easy carriage. A paralysis of
+the lower limbs had supervened; but otherwise she had rallied a little,
+and her mind was clear and cheerful. There was only to be a peaceful
+waiting for the end, no feverish fluctuations of hope and fear. It was
+curious how they settled themselves to the fact. A nurse was installed
+for night watching and the more onerous part; and the invalid's room
+took on a pleasant aspect,--Christiana waiting on this side of the
+river.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+FOR the first time in his life, and for some unfathomable cause, Jack
+Darcy found business cares irksome. Balance-time was at hand. He was a
+little tired of the dreary round. The men's disaffection re-acted upon
+him. With his keen and intelligent faculty of making the best of every
+thing, he was disappointed because he had failed to inspire others with
+it.
+
+"It's not so bad, after all. We have nothing that can be passed to
+capital, but we have held our own. Only, there is no dividend for the
+men."
+
+"I'll explain that to them," exclaimed Winston with a confident nod.
+
+He did, and he had a rather stormy venture. All the old arguments and
+agreements had to be gone over. Men unaccustomed to business are quick
+in prosperity and stupid in adversity. They only had three-quarter
+wages: why should they be called upon to lose beside? It was little
+enough, and waiting five years,--and no one knew,--the whole thing might
+go to smash another year! A few wished, with an oath, that they were
+well out of it. They would never be bamboozled into any co-operative
+scheme again.
+
+The grumbling, grew louder and louder. It was discussed at Keppler's
+over beer and bad whiskey, and quite inflammatory speeches were made.
+Then Winston called the mill-hands together.
+
+"My men," said he, "you know we opened the mills in starvation-times.
+Every man who could raise fifty dollars was entitled to a half-share of
+the capital, and he who could not was to have a little capital made off
+of the savings of his labor. Last year you were all pleased and merry
+and satisfied, because we made something: this year it has been the
+reverse, though I declare to you, I, for one, have worked twice as hard.
+Now, we shall never do any thing if we are all going to row different
+ways. It must be the long pull, the strong pull, and the pull all
+together. You know that if any operative became dissatisfied, and left,
+his share was forfeited to the fund for the sick and disabled. Many of
+you _are_ dissatisfied; but maybe you won't leave, thinking of last
+year's money. Now, I want to say, every such man who would like to
+_sell_ his share, may do so. I have had some applications from new men,
+that I have been very sorry to refuse. I shall open a book, and any man
+who wants to go out may put down his name there, and, just as fast as
+the shares are resold, he can go; _but he never comes back into Hope
+Mills again_! Just think it over, and decide in the course of a few
+days."
+
+"O Winston!" cried Jack, "I am afraid there will be a stampede!"
+
+"You're nervous and blue, Darcy. Now, you see if this isn't the very
+best move. There were two men here the other day from Little Falls. They
+had been taking out half their wages in store-pay, and the concern burst
+up, owing them the other half. They knew of a dozen men, not beggarly
+poor either, who would be glad to come. I'll bet my old hat there don't
+six men go out. Come, now!"
+
+"You can't tempt me with your old hat," returned Jack laughingly. "Make
+it a treat at Kit Connelly's."
+
+"Agreed. We'll take in the household."
+
+A dozen names were put down on the first day, two on the second, then
+there was a lull. Afterward four were erased; and, when it came to the
+actual pinch, five men went out, two of them very reluctantly.
+
+"I felt so sorry for Davy," said Jack when they had made the transfers.
+"He didn't want to go, and I do not believe he would if it had not been
+for his brother-in-law."
+
+"A good lesson for all parties. There will not be any grumbling for some
+time to come, I'll warrant. It is rather irregular business; but
+sometimes you can't wait for a regular surgeon, or the patient would be
+past help."
+
+Events pointed the lesson pretty forcibly. By the middle of October
+there was a sudden rush of orders. Prices rallied a little. There were
+some tremendous bankruptcies, but it seemed more in speculation than
+legitimate industry. The new men brought a fresh infusion of spirit and
+energy. One of them, a small, middle-aged man, Gilman by name, who had
+once been manager and had a share in a mill that came to grief through a
+defaulting cashier who had successfully forged the name of the firm, was
+especially enthusiastic about the system. Jack admitted that the
+culmination of the discontent was the very best thing that had happened
+for the mill.
+
+Davy went almost wild over his mistake, cursed his brother-in-law
+roundly, and forbade his wife to visit her brother's household. Nothing
+to do, not even three-quarter wages to live upon, with cheap coal and
+cheap flour. He even waylaid Darcy, and begged to be taken back without
+any share.
+
+"I'm sorry, Davy, but it cannot be done. We resolved, whatever happened,
+we would not go back on our word. You had time enough to think it over."
+
+"Just you wait," said Price, when he heard this. "They've three years
+more to wade through, and they'll never hold together all that time. It
+has a very queer look, too, that, just as soon as they shoved us out,
+they began to make money again. Bob Winston's the sort of fellow to look
+out for himself, and he had this thing all cut and dried."
+
+"Look here," remarked a listener, "you signed your own selves out.
+Nobody made you. I haven't any faith in the scheme, but I like truth for
+all that."
+
+The men worked with a will. The monthly club meetings took on a new
+interest; and they decided, if the prosperity continued, to open a
+co-operative store another year. They were growing more thoughtful and
+intelligent, and Gilman's influence upon them was excellent, while his
+experiences widened their views. A little fresh blood certainly worked
+no harm.
+
+Jack was very cheery again. It seemed to him they had pulled through the
+worst. The larger outlook was better: goods were going abroad, and money
+or bonds were coming back. Here and there some new enterprise started,
+but still there were hundreds of men out of employment. Yerbury showed
+various signs of a new thriftiness. The farms about were better managed.
+Some idle men had ventured to hire a little ground the past summer, and
+raise sufficient to have something over for their trouble. The Webbers
+succeeded beautifully. Of course there were slurs about a Dutchman
+living on a cabbage a week, but every one knew the Webbers were not that
+kind. What Germans were able to do nicely and wisely, Americans might
+copy to their profit. When some of the natives were out of work, they
+patched up their fences, painted a bit, laid a bad place in the
+sidewalk, instead of hanging round a saloon.
+
+As for those who were living through the sad sweet lesson of loving and
+losing, time went on with them also. If they could have stayed his hand!
+Sylvie recovered from the first shock: she could never suffer quite so
+intensely again, for there was one to share her least thought, her most
+trivial to her greatest pain. The explanation had come about very
+gently, making only a small ripple. Mrs. Lawrence was delighted: she
+always had liked Sylvie, and she was certain that Fred was a better
+match than Jack Darcy, though she admitted he was remarkable for a
+young man with no better opportunities.
+
+Miss Barry was truly satisfied. She would cling to her little dream of
+"orders" and "kinds" to the last, but she always did it in an
+unobtrusive way. She had felt all her life long, rather all _their_
+lives, that they were made for one another. Less practically clear-eyed
+than her young niece,--brought up in the active reasoning and doing of
+to-day, rather than the doctrine of passive suffering that had been in
+the old creed for women,--she would have assented when Sylvie refused.
+To be sure, if Jack Darcy had won her he would have had a delicate and
+sincere welcome; but I think her eye would never have lighted with the
+true mother-love at his coming, as it did at Fred's. The worth of his
+years of refinement and polish came out now. He never seemed at loss or
+awkward in the sickroom. If he was reading, he warily noted the first
+droop of the eyes; he could tell by the lines in her face when talking
+wearied her, or when she preferred being alone. Every thing between them
+was harmonious.
+
+She amazed even Dr. Maverick by her improvement, though she held her
+life even yet on the same frail tenure. She really hoped to live until
+spring, when she should plan for Sylvie's marriage. Fred had made a very
+profitable engagement with the widow he had spoken of, and was to
+furnish designs for the interior of her house and furniture. There was
+to be one purely Grecian room, one on the old Roman model, a sunset room
+where every thing was to be in accord, and a "sea" room fit for Naiads
+or Undines. Sylvie was intensely interested. This Mrs. Spottiswoode was
+young and handsome, the widow of a man nearly three times her age, and
+childless.
+
+Fred Lawrence was proud to have something of his very own to offer
+Sylvie, and she took it as the highest of all compliments. She did like
+the profession, if that it could be called; for it brought them nearer
+together, it was something they could both share. She copied designs
+and art essays, she drew patterns, she painted now and then, days when
+Miss Barry was at her best. She would make of herself something that
+should enhance Fred's pride in her,--as if he was not proud enough
+already!
+
+The one least contented with all this was Philip Maverick.
+
+"I never was so thunderstruck in all my life! That's just the word to
+express it, for it left me dazed as the blackness does after the
+lightning. I would have sworn, Jack, that she loved you, and you loved
+her. Good heavens! if I had not believed that, if I had not been too
+honorable to seek to play a friend a scurvy trick, it would have gone
+hard with me if I had not won her for myself."
+
+"Honestly, you would not have succeeded, Maverick. Neither would she
+have married me. I think she belonged to Fred from the beginning. He
+used to hate girls, judging from his sisters, no doubt, but he always
+liked Sylvie. I was afraid of girls,--their sharp eyes and sharper
+tongues,--but I liked her too; yet in my own mind he always had the
+first claim. And they will be suited in the farthest fibre of each
+soul."
+
+"He is not half worthy of her!" growled Maverick.
+
+"Who is?" There was a peculiar tender intonation in the voice. "Sylvie
+Barry's womanhood is unique, like some rare gem. She has the sparkle but
+not the hardness of a diamond; the warmth and vividness of the ruby, but
+not its heats; the serenity of the sapphire, and yet to me that is
+always cold. Rather I think she is a changeful opal with all hues and
+tints and surprises."
+
+"And yet you have never loved her!" in intense surprise.
+
+"I worship her," said Jack reverentially. "I should as soon think of
+wooing an angel."
+
+"And yet this man, who is not as strong, or noble, or high in purpose,
+takes her with your consent. You can see her sit down at his feet, wind
+her own rich, pure, sustaining life-melody about him, to make his path
+seem like going through an enchanted land. She has genius, but it will
+ever linger in the shadow of his; it will help, and purify, and shape
+his; she will give her whole soul to the work. Is he worth the best
+there is in such a woman as Sylvie Barry?"
+
+"No; and we never go by our deserts when a woman loves us," said Jack,
+with frank honesty.
+
+"I am quite sure you will marry a woman I shall hate," returned Maverick
+testily.
+
+Jack laughed. "Marrying has not been much in my thoughts;" and yet his
+fair face flushed. "I have to fight Hope Mills out to the end first."
+
+But just now there did not seem much of a prospect for fighting, though
+he firmly believed he should always be on guard after this.
+
+There was one other person in this little circle, who was of much
+interest to the others, even if it was for the most part unspoken.
+Maverick had tried to rouse Irene Lawrence from her lethargy by appeals
+of different kinds. She certainly was not an intellectual woman, though
+she had a strong and well-cultivated mind, and was accomplished in many
+ways,--society accomplishments, with a view to the admiration they might
+win. He could seem to strike no electric spark, though he succeeded in
+restoring her to health. Every week of her stay at Depford Beach, she
+had improved; but there was the old, dreary, listless life. She used to
+think herself, if some shock like that of an earthquake could lift her
+completely out of it! but none came.
+
+For it could not be said that Miss Barry's illness was any shock to her.
+People were sick, and died, and their perplexity was at an end. A
+generous, kindly life like this of Miss Barry's would have its
+reward--if any life ever was rewarded. She did not doubt so much: she
+had never really believed.
+
+As she said to Sylvie, something stronger than herself had sent her that
+night,--one of those powerful, impelling influences that few can resist.
+And Sylvie was wise enough not to lose her hold. She drew her in very
+gently, she preached no sermon, she asked favors frankly.
+
+"I want you to take my pony-carriage," she said one day, after their
+return to Yerbury. "I ought to go out every day, and if you come with it
+I shall; but if I am left to my own fancies, there will be so much to
+occupy me. Then, too, companionship is always very tempting."
+
+"I should be glad to do any thing for you," was the quiet, unemotional
+reply.
+
+So the carriage was brought every morning to the door. It seemed so odd,
+the day she first drove around Yerbury! Unconsciously the old
+stateliness returned. Her heart swelled with contradictory phases of
+thought and feeling. She was too really proud to suffer from the stings
+of petty vanity. She knew there were people who stared at Miss Lawrence;
+and she allowed them to stare with the serenity of a queen, going her
+way unmoved.
+
+She and Sylvie went through lanes and by-ways this gorgeous October day.
+Her heart was strangely touched by the glory, by the odorous air, the
+softened sounds, and brooding tenderness. Sylvie had a few errands to
+some old parishioners of her aunt's; and, while she went in cottages,
+Irene sat with the reins idly in her hands. There was much in the world
+she had never seen, though she had climbed Alps, and wandered in sunny
+vales. The ripeness and perfection of this midday was exhilarating. They
+talked in little snatches, and then were silent.
+
+Coming back they drove through the town: it was nearer. Crossing over to
+Larch Avenue, a tall figure confronted them. Sylvie bowed, and looked
+straight on, remembering such a rencounter years agone. Irene Lawrence
+turned her head with its proudest poise, but her face flushed scarlet
+under her veil. She would have made the _amende honorable_ then, if it
+had taken all the strength of her soul.
+
+She and Jack Darcy had met occasionally through the summer. Mrs.
+Lawrence rather liked to talk mill affairs with him, and his name was
+quite a familiar one in their household. Now that it had come, she was
+rather glad to offer this wordless apology for a crime against
+good-breeding, that only a rude young girl could be guilty of, to one
+she considered her inferior.
+
+She had wondered more than once, why that long-ago evening at Sylvie's
+should haunt her,--the talk of costumes, the bright chat, the dainty
+ripples of laughter, and that face with its cool, steady power. If it
+had been that of any other man, she would have pitted herself against
+it, and conquered, she fancied. Now conquests were things of the past.
+She was not one of your soft, maudlin women, who sigh for a little love.
+She looked straight into the coming years, and saw herself always alone,
+with no feeling of pity or regret.
+
+As for Jack Darcy, when they had passed, he turned and looked after
+them,--after _her_, in her state and dignity. He held one secret of her
+life that she would never know. He had questioned Maverick, who learned
+that she had no remembrance of going out that night. He had bound Fred
+over to a most willing secrecy.
+
+Ah, Jack! any remembrance that you can carry so guardedly in your soul
+is a dangerous thing,--a spark that may kindle a great fire "that many
+waters cannot quench!"
+
+Sylvie did not relinquish her own outside interests. The school that had
+had so small a beginning was now merged into a regular enterprise, and
+been re-christened an Industrial School. It had a permanent teacher, and
+occupied the whole house, the rent being paid by some benevolent
+gentlemen. A committee of ladies assisted in the different classes. The
+store was kept open, one side being reserved for articles of clothing
+or fancy goods made by the pupils, the other as a bakery on a limited
+scale, and a lunch-counter. It certainly was doing a good work. Some
+young girls, after being trained, had been provided with service places,
+and had given excellent satisfaction. Irene went through it one day with
+Sylvie, and was oddly interested.
+
+"I wish I had a genius of some kind," she said abruptly to Sylvie
+afterward. "If I could write a book, or paint a picture, or design
+exquisite adornments, or if I could hold the world spell-bound by my
+voice"--
+
+"You do sing," returned Sylvie. "Auntie was speaking of it yesterday.
+She said, 'How I should like to hear Miss Lawrence sing some of her
+pathetic old ballads!'"
+
+"You know all the sweet and tender ones."
+
+"I sing mine over daily," and Sylvie laughed with a dainty inflection.
+
+Irene went home, and opened her piano. It might have made jarring
+discord, but for Fred's thoughtfulness. She found it was in perfect
+tune.
+
+Was it the music that brought a curious intensity to her after all these
+long, dreary months? Her fingers seemed a little stiff at first, and
+some things had gone out of her mind. Then she dropped her face into her
+hands, and thought.
+
+"It is my only gift," she said slowly. "When they are married I will not
+be a burthen on them: I can make my way. I shall never try to think of
+marriage again;" and she shuddered.
+
+"I declare, you are quite like yourself," said her mother that evening.
+
+The weeks went on. Miss Barry was making plans for her niece. She could
+not live here alone, even for a few months. And she longed to see her
+married. Though the others had almost forgotten how surely her days were
+numbered, she had not.
+
+Fred assented delicately to her proposal.
+
+"It is not as if there were only your income," she said with a touch of
+pride. "Sylvie will have enough to keep the old house as it is kept now,
+and your mother and sister have some claims on you. Still, for her
+sake"--
+
+Sylvie would fain have put it off, but she was gently overruled. The
+wedding-garments were ordered, the day appointed. A quiet marriage in
+the pretty parlor, with only a few friends. They brought Miss Barry down
+stairs, and she listened while her darling reverently repeated her vows.
+They kissed the new bride while the tears were shining in her eyes, and
+sent her on a brief wedding-journey with heartfelt blessings. Maverick
+was to telegraph to them every day.
+
+Fred Lawrence could hardly believe his happiness. They were like two
+children out on a pleasure-excursion, not needing to realize the gravity
+of life in these golden days. What cared they for pale winter suns and
+shivering blasts!
+
+Long ago he had planned a brilliant tour to Europe for her. He had gone
+over it all, and would only have been bored; but it was the thing to do,
+and he might enjoy her fresh delight in it. But to both of them--to him
+especially--had come the higher revelations of life. It is the
+aggregation of individual characteristics that makes the sum-total of
+national character; and though at first retrenchment and economy seemed
+hideous words to the pleasure-loving, easy-going, self-indulgent souls
+nursed in the lap of prosperity, there was coming a realization to those
+who had fought their way valiantly across the yawning gulf, that the hot
+race for show, the desire to exceed one another, was not a lofty aim for
+an immortal soul, hardly for a cultured nature.
+
+They both understood that beauty and grandeur were not far-off, hardly
+attained ideals, and that the great pleasures were set in the world
+rather as incentives and rewards, than highly seasoned daily food which
+must inevitably produce satiety. Some time, when they had earned this
+glorious vacation, they would take it hungering with the healthy
+appetite of a well-trained soul. At present the duty was to deny one's
+self firmly and contentedly, to round off the sharp corners, to shape
+the daily living to high, pure purposes; so that the greater excellences
+of Art should not despise the minor forms, the steps whereby true
+perfection was attained, the tangled threads that often required more
+real genius to comprehend than the one great moment of inspiration.
+
+They came home again fresh and bright, with the peculiar fragrance of a
+new life about them, just as you shall smell spring in the woods on some
+mild, sunny February day. Fred fluctuated between office and city, quite
+a prophet of household art, welcomed warmly back to the old circles
+which had so quietly dropped him for a while. Is there not a great deal
+of this unconscious proving of the fine metal of souls in the world? We
+cry out as we are thrust aside, or given some hard task to do; we wonder
+people do not hold out kindly hands, smile with sympathetic eyes; and
+yet their very help might weaken us. When we have beaten our way across
+with the roar of the distant waves still in our ears, the shadows of the
+black, fierce, jagged cliff hardly faded, the taste of the brackish
+spray still lingering on our lips, an exultant thrill speeds through
+every nerve as we clasp a hand that has had to buffet through the same
+fateful current.
+
+Early in April Miss Barry had another seizure, a fatal stroke this time.
+For a few days she lay in sweet content; and then dropped peacefully out
+of existence.
+
+It seems always a mystery, why such earnest, useful souls, doing that
+highest of all work,--a pure, unselfish charity,--should be taken away,
+and the slothful, dependent, ease-loving, selfish ones left. The Darcys
+felt that Mrs. Lawrence could have been spared much more easily, and
+served a higher economy in point of usefulness. But God, who sees every
+end from the beginning, and is all-wise, judges differently. Miss Barry
+had done her work, no light life-task either. Only God knew what it had
+been, days of toil and nights of watching and prayer, such pain as only
+a strong soul could have kept to itself, and smiled over. Yet she had
+her exceeding sweet reward in this world,--years of peace and comfort,
+the child-love she had missed in one way, supplied in another, the hope
+of her days crowned more wisely by the waiting.
+
+They did not think it worth while to keep up the two households; indeed,
+Mrs. Lawrence would not have been separated from her son: so she and
+Irene brought their worldly possessions over to Larch Avenue. The old
+house was large enough. Sylvie was a courteous and charming mistress;
+though Fred realized, with the sensitiveness of true tender love, the
+burthen he had brought to her.
+
+"It is not without its wise compensation," she said, tears in her sunny
+brown eyes. "You see, I shall miss auntie so much less! She would not
+desire me to grieve despairingly for her, and here is the new claim to
+take her place. Beside," with a sad yet arch smile, "we shall have to
+strive against the temptation to selfishness that besets newly married
+people, when their pursuits are identical, as ours are. It will give a
+greater breadth, a purer tone, to our lives."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+HOPE MILLS passed through a very prosperous six months. With some new
+processes, invented by the combined energy and ingenuity of the men,
+they made a new line of goods which was a perfect success. Interest and
+discount vanished; and there was a snug balance in the bank, of which
+every man was duly proud. They were beginning, too, to take a great
+interest in the finances of the country, and to see that a stable
+currency and wise economy and honesty were the best friends to
+commercial and industrial prosperity. One little incident made them
+exceedingly jubilant.
+
+They had been undersold, in the same line of goods, with quite a large
+customer. Winston was rather blue about it at first, then laughed it off
+as one of the fluctuations of trade. To his great surprise, six months
+after, he received the largest order for goods that had yet been sent.
+
+          "We have been much deceived in the quality of
+          cloths from Yates, Collins, & Co.," ran the note.
+          "They do not stand wear, though they resemble
+          yours so closely. Our customers have made numerous
+          complaints, and desire the old stock, which we are
+          glad to order again.
+
+                                   "MILES, CHAMBERS, & CO."
+
+This was put up on the bulletin-board, and discussed with much pride at
+the club. Every man had an interest in it, and an ambition to excel in
+his particular branch. It paid in the long-run to be honest; and, though
+there might be a higher principle than remuneration, that was not a bad
+test, after all.
+
+So the third summer opened brilliantly. Yardley, Gilman, and four others
+drew up an agreement for a co-operative store. They hired one man who
+had been a very successful buyer for a large grocery-firm, which had
+failed, and took with it his small invested capital. He was to keep the
+books, take orders, and do the buying, subject to the advisement of the
+managers. A certain low per cent of profits was agreed upon, just
+enough, they calculated, to pay expenses; and the goods were to be
+offered as low as possible for cash. The superior quality and reduced
+price, they decided, would be more agreeable to most of the men than a
+small balance at the end of the year. An account was to be kept with
+every member, and the agreement to remain in force one year from date.
+
+And yet there are shoals and quicksands for prosperity, as well as
+yawning abysses for adversity. There were people in Yerbury--not bad
+souls either--who were not content to allow the world to revolve on any
+axis but their own. They could see their neighbors' planets go to
+destruction with equanimity--following some law of nature or ethics that
+regulated supply and demand of any force, in their estimation; but when
+some bright particular star flashed out of the orbit they had set for
+it, of course it was beyond the pale of safety. There has always been a
+great deal of just such obstinacy in the world, just such narrow
+prescribing, and yet--"it does move."
+
+One of the favorite objections of these wiseacres was, that Hope Mills
+was founded on a wrong basis. Who knew _just exactly_ what amount of
+goods Winston sold? Well, there was the amount manufactured,--the amount
+on hand every six months. True,--with a disbelieving shake of the
+head,--but he was up in the ways of the world; and what would hinder
+him, Ananias-like, from keeping back part of the price? When this was
+shown to be an utter impossibility, they still were quite sure Winston
+harbored in his secret soul some plan for cheating the workmen at the
+last. Here would be all this accumulation of capital, and by some
+successful _coup-d'état_ Winston and Darcy would swoop down upon it, and
+take the lion's share. They were very much afraid that the workmen were
+going to be wronged in some underhand way. A defaulting cashier,
+unprincipled managers, thieves and forgers, committed their crimes in an
+out-and-out way; but there was going to be a profound mystery about
+this--the most simple and above-board management, when every man knew,
+every six months, the best and the worst of the details.
+
+Employment was becoming more general all through the country. Everybody
+drew a long breath, and decided that the grinding times of depression
+had passed. We would soon be back to the brilliant era of past
+prosperity.
+
+And then there arose a new light in the labor horizon, a prophet who had
+discovered the magic key to the workingmen's paradise, and it had only
+to be turned by themselves, to gain entrance. Wherever he went, he was
+hailed with acclamation.
+
+It was the old, old war upon capital, the old seductive science of
+equalizing things, values, money. Every poor man in the country had a
+better right to a cottage and garden and a few hours of leisure, than
+these few magnates to grasp every thing in their own hands, to roll in
+luxury, to feast in magnificence, to clothe their daughters in silks,
+velvets, and diamonds--it was to be noted that Mr. McPherson wore an
+immense diamond, but it was to be presumed that his wife or daughter did
+_not_. Everywhere one could see the rich growing richer, the poor
+poorer, the workman trodden down, brought to the level of slavery with
+his long hours and scanty wages. Where was it to end but in a nation of
+paupers, of thieves, of criminals of every grade? for, when you made a
+brute of a man, there came a time when he turned a brute's hand against
+you. This had been the underlying cause of all the world's great
+struggles: it had uncrowned kings, it had razed thrones, it had swept
+states. There were bits of distorted historical facts, fallacious but
+brilliant reasoning, and much bombast.
+
+They heard of him in this city and that, and there was a great deal said
+about the cordiality with which he greeted "the horny-handed son of
+toil." No town was so small that he disdained it, no city so great that
+he feared it. There had been "demonstrations," but he seemed proud of
+his defiance of danger.
+
+Men who could not altogether approve of him admitted that he was
+"smart," that he uttered a good many truths, half-truths they were,
+dressed up in specious falsehoods, all the more dangerous, since the
+world does pay homage to virtue and truth. They were troublesome
+questions: the great difficulty was the haste made in settling them. A
+balance will finally adjust itself, though there may be many vibrations
+at first.
+
+It was a fact much to be regretted, that with returning prosperity the
+gin-mills and beer-shops of Yerbury had, as a general thing, increased
+in their business. A notable instance to the contrary, however, was
+Keppler's saloon. It had depended a good deal on the men from Hope Mills
+and the iron-works. The latter had been closed so long; and, although
+the coffee-house did not seem much of a rival at first, it had gone on
+steadily, and given the men time to think. It was not simply the one
+glass of beer they took to wash down their midday lunch, but the
+treating when a crowd gathered, the many drinks during a heated
+discussion of an evening. Not half a dozen of the mill-hands went there
+now, so occupied had their minds become with other matters. Keppler's
+lease was not out, and his rent was high for the times; he had lost
+money and customers, and felt sore over it; he had a grudge against
+Jack Darcy as the exponent of a system that interfered with his profits.
+
+McPherson was discussed over pipes and ale one warm June evening, with
+brains cleared, of course, by frequent potations and stifling smoke. It
+was proposed that he should be invited to lecture at Yerbury.
+
+"I like to see fair play!" cried Keppler. "These fellows over
+here"--nodding toward the mill--"have had it all their own way because
+they took up a lot of starving men in dull times. That was all well
+enough,--praise-worthy--praise-w-o-r-thy," with a long accent. "But
+things have changed now,--changed!" with a confident nod. "I'd like to
+hear what the man has to say. You see, he has come up from the ranks, he
+has been poor himself!"
+
+So the ball was put in motion. McPherson's speech at Millville, a great
+laboring-centre, was read aloud with frequent cheering. And the
+laboring-men at Yerbury began to wonder why wages were not higher, when
+so many shops were running on full time! Somebody was making a great
+deal of money: _they_ could barely live. Bread and meat had not fallen
+in the ratio of wages. It was still next door to starvation.
+
+Finally some self-constituted labor-committee sent the letter of
+invitation, and received a cordial and flattering reply. Mr. McPherson
+had heard of Yerbury. He would be only too glad to come among them in
+his humble capacity, and shed what light he could upon the side of right
+and truth; raise his voice for the oppressed against the oppressor. And
+he mentioned that open-air meetings were generally more successful.
+
+They put up a platform on the Common, the largest park in Yerbury. The
+day was very fine, not too hot, and a shower the evening before had laid
+the dust. At precisely four, a deputation awaited Mr. McPherson and his
+party at the station, escorted them to the Bedell House to refresh, and
+then to the grand hall of nature, with its waving arches of glistening
+green overhead.
+
+Already a great concourse had assembled. Mr. McPherson mounted his
+rostrum, and, after a few preliminary flourishes, began in a clear,
+strong tone, that had the power of concentrating the attention of his
+audience. He went back centuries, and proved that from the very
+beginning of all industries there had been the desire to oppress, that
+the working-classes had to combine and fight for every advantage gained,
+to wrest from kings, peers, masters, even equals, the privileges they
+held to-day. Plainly, capital was a tyrant fattening on unpaid toil.
+"Were not the rich always in the ranks of capital, always against the
+poor man? They squeezed him to the utmost when they had need, then they
+flung him away. Did it matter to them if his wife and children starved?
+If he stole a loaf of bread to appease the pangs of hunger, he was sent
+to prison; but if a bank president stole half a million, he went
+to--Europe! [Laughter and applause.] Does the capitalist employ the
+laborer in order that there shall be fewer starving men in the country?
+It comes in the market, and buys at the lowest price, solely for its own
+benefit. It does not concern capital, whether this man can support wife
+and children on such a pittance: what business has he with wife and
+children! If the man drops at the work-bench, the victim of long hours,
+exhaustive toil, insufficient food, the town will thrust him into a
+pauper's grave, and another will fill his place. Even negro-slavery was
+more noble than this: it was to the master's interest that the slave
+should be well fed. Capital was shrewd, selfish, experienced, astute,
+strong: labor was kept in ignorance lest it might learn its worth, its
+rights; it was half-starved that it might be weak; it was driven from
+pillar to post with a more cruel than slave-driver's whip, that it might
+never be able to perfect a successful organization."
+
+And so on and on. The crowd increased. The six-o'clock bells rang, and
+the procession from shops wended their way thither, many from curiosity,
+some from a hope of a new truth, and not a few filled with a secret
+sense of wrong and dissatisfaction. Mr. McPherson was still belaboring
+capital. Now he had declared it "a stupendous fraud, a hollow bubble, a
+reputation for wealth where no wealth existed, a fictitious claim for
+what was not, but which still managed to hold the workman in its iron
+grasp; the concentrated labor of the men, not the lawful working
+interest of money. Some way this system of evil was going to be uprooted
+by men standing firm, refusing the wages of sweat and blood; and in the
+general overturn by legislation of state and country, every man was to
+have a farm or a factory, to quit work in the middle of the afternoon,
+and sit with folded hands on his own door-step, his own master, a free
+man!" [Great shouting and applause.]
+
+He talked until seven, and wound up at last with a desperate but covert
+onslaught on Hope Mills. "No two men or six men, or company of any kind,
+had a right to band together to starve not only the men in their own
+town, but the laborers throughout the world, by so reducing wages for
+their own sole benefit; and every workman who submitted to have these
+chains forged around body and soul, no matter by what specious
+expedient, was a worse traitor, a more cruel oppressor of wife and
+children, than the red-handed capital that stood ready to make him a
+slave!"
+
+There was an immense deal of cheering and applause. Mr. McPherson was
+invited to supper at the Bedell House by a deputation of working-men,
+though I think there were few horny-handed ones among them. Liquors
+flowed freely, and the feast was rather noisy. A purse was handed to him
+when he went away--he was too noble to make any charge when he spoke in
+behalf of a cause so near his heart.
+
+The seed was sown, and it is too true that "foul weeds grow apace."
+There were club-meetings and union-meetings. The shoe-factory, which had
+struggled hard to get on its legs again, soon became a hotbed of
+discontent. The hatters held meetings, the paper-makers were aroused,
+and then began preparation for another grand strike. The weavers from
+Coldbridge and Stilford sent over a deputation to Hope Mills, warning,
+exhorting, and threatening. "No system," said they, "should interfere
+with mutual strength and protection."
+
+And this was not all. It seemed as if Yerbury meant to make them the
+scape-goat of every thing. Robert Winston was broadly caricatured; and
+there was a bit of insulting abuse, calling them traders in their
+brethren's blood, pasted up on the gate-post. "The Evening Transcript"
+went over the system of co-operation, and showed to its own
+satisfaction, that it was a system full of errors and miscalculations
+based on the credulity of workmen. It hinted that the same mysterious
+cause which reduced profits last year would reduce them again next year,
+that at the end of the five years the bread and cheese would come out
+just even, although there had been a great deal more bread than cheese,
+as everybody knew. If the corporation were working for the best
+interests of the men, why had they not sold off stock when every one
+knew prices were going permanently down, instead of waiting to sell it
+below cost? Why had they paid exorbitant prices for wool when the market
+was flooded with it? Why had they not done this or that? until one
+wondered why, understanding the woollen-business so well, and being able
+to see just where enormous profits could be made, and losses avoided,
+they had not all gone into it themselves. The article wound up with a
+covert and insulting insinuation. Human nature was the same, the world
+over. Men of the highest probity and honor had succumbed to temptation:
+these men who had never really been in any responsible position had yet
+to be proved. If men like David Lawrence and Horace Eastman could not
+make a stand against fluctuations and difficulties, it was hardly likely
+success would crown any such abnormal undertaking.
+
+Jack did not see the paper until the next day. Some one laid it
+surreptitiously on his desk. His face flushed darkly at the attack upon
+his honesty, and for a moment all the belligerency of his boyhood rose
+to the surface. He had half a mind to hunt up the writer of the article,
+and pound him to a jelly with his two fists. But presently he laughed to
+himself, and then made a tour of the mills in his cheeriest fashion. He
+saw with grief that the seed had found root. There were some sullen
+faces and short answers.
+
+It certainly is a hard thing to keep on fighting an old foe that can
+only be beaten, never killed.
+
+Jack stumbled over Cameron in the store-room.
+
+"Cameron," said he with a white, rigid face, "I wish to God this was the
+last day of the five years! I should walk out of Hope Mills, and never
+set foot in it again, no, not even if they implored me on their knees. A
+thankless, miserable set! The lying article in last night's paper made
+me mad for a moment, but could not sting: yet the faces of my own men
+did as I came through the rooms."
+
+"You've had a hard pull, Jack!" Cameron's voice was fatherly and
+soothing. "You might have put your money and your brains in something
+that would have proved much pleasanter. But the man who takes up the
+first end of a truth always gets hard knocks: it is the people who come
+after who find a smooth path. Don't you remember," drawing his wrinkled
+face into a queer smile, "the shrewd application your New York lady made
+about the children of Israel? Jack, if the salvation scheme of the Bible
+was all proved false,--which it never will be, to my mind,--there's so
+much wisdom in it beside, that a chap could take it just for a sort of
+guidebook in every-day matters, all the same. And now we're going to
+have a big fight."
+
+"You think that?" cried Jack, in vague alarm. "I wish Winston was here.
+He can always talk so to the point!"
+
+"Well, he isn't: we've got to go through it ourselves. But this settles
+it! You see, there's been Price, and Pickett, and Davy, to stir up
+strife and bad feeling, and all this outside influence; but my old
+woman's praying us through, and I set a good deal of store by her
+prayers, Jack! If these ruffians go on, Yerbury'll be half ruined again,
+but it is their own fault. I'm not much on capital punishment, but I
+would go to the hanging of that McPherson. If he'd staid away, we should
+have done well enough."
+
+Jack drew a long, troubled breath.
+
+"I'd let every man go out who wanted to, but I wouldn't pay-him a red
+cent, there!"
+
+That evening Jack went down to Larch Avenue. He found Fred and Sylvie up
+in arms. Indignation was a mild term.
+
+It was a magnificent night, with a nearly full moon. The light flooded
+the wide lawn path, and made shadows of elves and gnomes on the porch,
+as the wind wandered in and out the great honeysuckle, whose ripe, rich
+perfume was shaken about with every waft. Within, an Argand lamp, and
+porcelain shade with a minute painting of Puck and his fairy host, sent
+a softened radiance on the old, rich-hued carpet, and antique furniture.
+It was but little changed, yet wore an indescribably antique look.
+
+Over at an open window sat Irene Lawrence, dressed in white, with a
+single deep-red velvety rose at her throat, which Sylvie had pinned
+there. Her hair had grown rapidly, and, though it did not quite curl,
+the ends tumbled about loosely, framing in the face with their dusky
+purplish tint. It was very clear now, and a little pale; the old
+brilliant coloring had not all returned; the passionless grace, the deep
+eyes with their steady lights, the mouth suggesting mobility and warmth
+and passion, rather than defining it, the droop of the white lids, the
+unruffled brow, and the pose of the bowed head and slightly-yielding
+throat, made a marvellous picture.
+
+The three were talking earnestly, as people do in the great crises of
+life; Sylvie wondrously piquant, with some thin, black, trailing stuff
+making shifting billows about her restless feet. She questioned Jack
+eagerly, she denounced the attack as cruel and cowardly. What did he
+mean to do? What should Fred do for him?
+
+"There is nothing to do, but just wait for the result. The
+dragon's-teeth have been sown. The only comfort I have is, that you
+never can put a lie on the face of truth, and nail it there. No amount
+of arguing or talk can make a thing so when it is _not_ so. Higher than
+this little human round, God garners every truth in his keeping, and
+will make it tell somewhere!"
+
+Miss Lawrence raised her eyes, and glanced over to him. Had the slow
+impassiveness of her soul been touched, that this sudden peculiar grace
+of sympathy, or some hidden kindred feeling, rose and asserted itself?
+And yet she might have been in some magnetic sleep, for all actual
+movement of her features; it was the dawn of an expression that seemed
+to transport him to some strange world, where he had known her long
+ago,--where he had watched for her coming, listened to her
+voice,--rather than any present interest or meaning.
+
+He rose abruptly.
+
+"You are not going!" cried Sylvie, in her pretty wifely imperiousness.
+
+"I"--for a moment he had the sensation of a man drowning. The surging
+waves were about him, throbbing, leaping, strangling him. There was a
+ringing in his ears, there was a long shuddering sensation, like being
+overwhelmed.
+
+"It is very warm," he went on in a faint, strained voice, wiping the
+beaded drops from his broad brow.
+
+"Come over here," pleaded Sylvie: "you will be cooler. The wind is
+south, and doesn't blow in those windows. You are sure you feel quite
+well?" scanning him anxiously. "You look pale."
+
+"It was only momentary." He wondered now what had so moved him. "I am
+like good old John Bunyan's Pilgrim,"--laughing faintly,--"'tumbled up
+and down' with these excitements. I wish they were at an end. We were
+going on so nicely when that McPherson came! Don't let us think any more
+about it," throwing up his head with a nervous shake. "Sylvie, I wish
+you would sing something."
+
+"With pleasure. Fred and I have been practising duets. When Yerbury is
+laid in ashes we can go off as strolling minstrels;" and she laughed
+gayly, as she went to the piano. That exquisite tact in changing a mood
+or scene was a familiar characteristic of Sylvie Barry.
+
+As the sound of their blending voices floated out on the summer night
+air, there leaped up in Darcy's soul a subtle, forceful, vivifying
+flame, touching to a white heat the farthest pulse of his being.
+Resistance appeared impossible: he did not even dream what manner of
+influence this might be. Long afterward--it seemed ages to him--as their
+heads were bent together over the pages of the music, he raised his
+eyes, and let them wander slowly toward Irene Lawrence.
+
+Was there something quite new in the face,--a sort of strange,
+wondering, troubled expression, as if some unseen, almost unknown, depth
+had been stirred?
+
+He did not need to ask the question now. Wild as it was, he loved that
+statue over yonder, and it seemed to him that his passion in its
+enduring vitality must awaken her soul to kindred life! An exultant
+strength and determination rose within him. What might have abashed
+another man, filled him with a deathless courage, as high as it was
+pure.
+
+He thanked Sylvie and Fred for the song, but resisted their entreaties
+to remain. When he said good-night, he went over to Miss Lawrence, and
+took her hand. It was cold and passive, and her eyes fell beneath his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+THE excitement ran very high not only in Yerbury, but all over the
+country. Strikes seemed the order of the day again, and for what reason,
+was not clearly made manifest, unless labor felt that it had capital a
+little by the throat, in that its services were again somewhat in
+demand. "Now," said the prophets. Surely, if they did not strike when
+there was employment, they could not when there was none.
+
+It began in the shoe-shop. The next Monday morning the men made their
+demand in no gentle terms, and were refused. There was a large contract
+at stake, however, and by Tuesday night the matter was talked over in a
+better spirit. The employers were willing to accede to one-half of the
+demand, otherwise the order must be sent to another firm. Thursday
+morning they went to work with a rather ill grace, yet some elation.
+Then the hatters took their turn. The hands at Hope Mills were served
+with a notice that the mutual protectionists in all the towns around
+were to be out on the following Monday; and stirring appeals were made
+to those who had any feeling of honor in the cause.
+
+It was exceedingly hard on the men. They gathered around in little knots
+on Sunday, wild with conflicting emotions. Their faith in Hope Mills and
+co-operation was undergoing a severe strain. The fear of secret frauds,
+of underhand dealing, of distrust in Winston and Darcy, had been dinned
+in their ears by outside influence, some of it very potent. Not one
+appeal had been made by the managers: Cameron and the others decided it
+was best.
+
+Jack went over to the mill on Monday morning. The gatekeeper and the
+bell-boy were there. The engineer came in with a quiet, solemn
+"Good-morning." The Brotherhood of Engineers had warned him too, and he
+was a little troubled; but he had cast in his lot with the rest, and it
+might be as well to wait and see what they did. The main shaft was
+turned.
+
+Jack from his office-window watched the streets filling up with men and
+women, many beside the regular operatives. They came to a halt.
+
+"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" the bell rang out cheerily on the summer morning
+air. "Come to work, come to work! The birds build homes, and rear their
+young; the bee skims the fragrant air in search of flowers; the rivers
+run to the sea, turning wheels, driving ships: nothing in the great
+economy of nature is idle," sang out the clang of the bell.
+
+The hands glanced at one another in doubt and dismay, and there was an
+awful silence for a few seconds.
+
+Some one elbowed his way through the crowd. He had come from the bedside
+of his sick child, who might be dying even now,--a small, wiry,
+middle-aged man, with a set, resolute face. He glanced about, then he
+sprang up on a pile of packing-boxes. It was Jesse Gilman.
+
+"My fellow-workmen," he began, "I don't know how you all feel about this
+matter; but Hope Mills took me in when I had tramped the country half
+over, and found nothing to do. I've tried the old system, and this can't
+be any worse; and, if I have to lose money by an employer, I'd rather it
+would be John Darcy of Yerbury, than any man I know. No man on the face
+of the earth has a right to say I shall not work in Hope Mills when I
+made my own bargain long ago to do it. That is all I have to say. I am
+going to work."
+
+"Three cheers!" cried some one as Gilman jumped down.
+
+There were cheers and groans.
+
+Ben Hay followed him, and stood a moment in the gateway.
+
+"Boys," said he in his rich, ringing voice, "Hope Mills was opened to
+receive a crowd of starving men. I'll take my oath to Jack Darcy's
+honesty. He's stuck by us, and we'll stick to him. That's the beauty of
+co-operation. You can't get away, and tramp off with the first fool that
+asks you! It isn't merely keeping company: it's a good, honest,
+up-and-down marriage. I'd as soon think of leaving my wife because some
+day she didn't give me two dinners instead of one!"
+
+There was a shout of laughter. The ice was broken in good earnest.
+"Three cheers for Ben Hay! Three cheers and a tiger for Jack Darcy!" and
+amid all this hubbub the men and women, the boys and girls, rushed in
+pell-mell. A gladder crew one never saw. To decide when others doubt, to
+go forward boldly when others hesitate, to stand up for the principle of
+right when others have traduced and blackened it, to take the first
+step, is to be as heroic as the "six hundred" of deathless fame.
+
+They went to work with a will, though some were a little sore and
+doubtful, but they were carried on by the enthusiasm of the others. The
+street below was still blocked up, and there were yells and groans.
+Presently there came a shower of superannuated eggs. Two landed in
+Darcy's office-window. After that, a stampede of the riotous crew.
+
+Darcy sent Andrew, the bell-boy, to the police-station, and two men were
+detailed. The workmen were allowed to go home peaceably, except a little
+jeering at Keppler's. They heard then the trains had been stopped on the
+two roads leading out of Yerbury. The whole world seemed to be going
+crazy.
+
+Darcy and Cameron remained in the mill that night until almost ten: then
+the latter went home, and Darcy thought he would go for Ben Hay. The
+streets of Yerbury had presented a very peculiar aspect that evening,
+something like a beleaguered town. Groups of men and boys collected on
+the corners, or wended their way through the streets with low, ominous
+mutterings. People barred their doors and locked their windows, though
+it was a hot summer night. Some women were abroad: but they were of the
+rougher sort, and now and then their shrill voices rose on the air in
+derision or vituperation. Still there were no overt acts of violence,
+and at ten everybody began to breathe more freely.
+
+The coffee-house had been shut up that evening: it was deemed advisable.
+Darcy went round to the side-door, and was admitted. Hay and three other
+workmen were within. They had been figuring up possible and probable
+profits by the end of the five years, and looked very well satisfied.
+
+"There's a sort of hope and expectation about it," said one of the men,
+"that kind of stirs and warms a body. And when you come to count lost
+time, and fluctuation in wages, it makes a pretty even thing, after all!
+In '73 I worked in a shoddy-mill that _had_ been making money hand over
+fist,--eleven hours a day,--not a man of us made more than five dollars
+a week. Some poor fellows with families earned only three. You've never
+been as hard up as that! God only knows how they lived: it's beyond my
+guessing!"
+
+"And if that was co-operation, how the system would be blamed!"
+exclaimed Ben Hay. "I declare, it makes me madder than a hen in a
+fence--I've caught that of Cameron," laughingly,--"to hear the things
+people have said about us. They're forever blathering about fair play--I
+wish they'd give a little, as well as take all. Wait till we've come to
+the end, say I, before they tell what we can do, or what we can't or
+sha'n't or won't!"
+
+There was a tramp in the street. The startled eyes studied one another.
+Then a shuffling and muttering, and a knock at the door.
+
+No one stirred but Mrs. Connelly, who threw up her hands, and cried,
+"The saints protect us!"
+
+"Earthly saints, Mother Connelly,--this kind," said Ben Hay with gay
+re-assurance, doubling his fist, and baring his brawny arm.
+
+The pounding increased. Rose ran down stairs wild with affright,
+followed by her sister. The boys fortunately were asleep in the back
+chambers.
+
+"Let us in, Mother Connelly: we want some bread and butter!" shouted a
+voice.
+
+"Cakes and yale!"
+
+"Pretzel and zwei lager!"
+
+"A sup of the craythur!"
+
+"A dhrop of whiskey to warrum us this could night! Av yees the heart av
+a sthone, Kit Connelly?"
+
+A roar of laughter succeeded this.
+
+"Go away, it will be better for you," declared Ben Hay.
+
+"Come out here, Hay, and fight like a man! Don't skulk behind a woman's
+petticoats!"
+
+There was a terrific onslaught at the door. It creaked and groaned, and
+was succeeded by a volley of oaths and imprecations. Rose began to cry,
+and the youngest girl came screaming down the stairs.
+
+Darcy had sent a man out of the back way for policemen. Hay and the two
+other men mounted guard. Again the door shivered and creaked: then it
+flew open, bolts, locks, and hinges having given way in a mass of
+splinters.
+
+Like a flash the men were on their assailants. The mob had not expected
+this. Right and left valorous blows were dealt, and two or three burly
+fellows were laid low. Some nearer sober, and more cowardly, took to
+their heels. Two men fought like tigers; and once Ben Hay came near
+getting the worst; but, by the time the dilatory guards of peace
+arrived, there was only a pile of bruised and battered bodies lying on
+the door-step.
+
+"A pretty tough scrimmage!" was the comment. "Weren't you a little hard
+on these fellows?"
+
+"A man has a right to defend his own life and his own nose," said Ben
+Hay decisively. "His life _may_ be useful, his nose _is_ ornamental when
+it is a handsome one like mine."
+
+What with drunkenness and the drubbing, two of the ruffians were unable
+to walk. Two others were marched off under the escort of the officers,
+the disabled sent for, and a guard detached to protect Mrs. Connelly's
+house. When everybody had been quieted, Jack took a tour down to the
+mills. Some poor object was huddled up in the corner of the main stoop.
+
+"What are you doing here?" demanded Darcy.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Darcy, don't strike me! I'm Bart Kane. I've had enough of this
+night, and I crawled here"--
+
+The boy began to sob and talk brokenly. He lifted his face in the
+moonlight. It was ghastly; one eye swollen shut, and purple-black, and
+streaks of blood and dirt over it; the clothing torn, the throat bare.
+
+"Were you down there at Connelly's?"
+
+"I warn't nowhere. It was along o' father: he comed home drunk."
+
+Barton Kane was a mill-boy, about nineteen now. Darcy's first feeling
+had been one of outrage and anger, but he cooled suddenly.
+
+"Tell me, my lad," in a kindly tone, taking the shivering fingers in
+his.
+
+"You see, Mr. Darcy, father'd been out along of the hatters all day,
+gettin' more and more rum in him. He said on Sunday, as how't I should
+strike; but they went to work here, and I worked with 'em. When I went
+home, mother, she gev me my supper, and ses she, 'Keep out o' sight,
+lad, happen thy dad's powerful mad wi' thee!' So I went to bed. But
+about nine he comed home, and tore up the house wi' his tantrums, and
+then lathered me. He called me a rat, and a sneak, and a turn-coat, and
+kicked me out o' the house, and threw my traps to me. Then afore I was
+fairly dressed he at me again, and said if ever I darkened the door,
+he'd murder me! I strayed round, afeared of everybody, and crawled up
+here. 'Pears like every bone in my body is broke, and my eye, he do hurt
+so!"
+
+With that Barton Kane broke out sobbing again, and clung to Jack Darcy's
+knees.
+
+"My poor lad!" the tone was infinitely tender. "Can you walk a little
+way, to Kit Connelly's? You can be nursed up there, and go to bed
+peaceably. Come, Barton, my boy, you are the hero of Hope Mills. When
+this is over, we shall have to give you a medal."
+
+He put his strong arm around the shivering body, and led him back to a
+kindly shelter.
+
+"Hay, Mrs. Connelly, and all of you: here's a lad that has been
+half-killed for standing by his colors to-day. Look here, Armstrong,
+would you mind going for Dr. Maverick? this poor chap needs some
+patching-up. And, Kit, give me some water and a napkin: we'll get his
+face a little cool and clean."
+
+"Let me do it, Mr. Darcy. Sure, I've boys of my own, and am used to it.
+Oh, the poor, poor lad!"
+
+Barton told his story over again. He was weak and hysterical now, and
+they made him a shake-down on the floor until the doctor came.
+
+"Now I'll start on my inspection-tour again," said Darcy, turning away.
+"We are all likely to make a night of it."
+
+He thought he would go around before he went in to see the watchmen:
+they had placed a force on guard quietly. He had just turned the second
+corner, when he saw a man jump from the high fence, and lie for an
+instant as if stunned. He hastened on, but the man sprang up and ran
+down the dark side of the street. His first impulse was to follow; then
+it struck him as strange that the dog gave no alarm. He had a gate-key
+in his pocket, and unlocked it at once.
+
+"Bruno!" he called, "Bruno, good fellow, come here."
+
+There was not a sound. The ominous silence thrilled Jack.
+
+"Bruno!"
+
+Hark! a curious crackling or sweep of wind, and smoky smell. He ran
+round to the rear. Close up against the back door, quite out of the
+moonlight, something was piled. Forked tongues of flame were shooting
+out of it everywhere. He seized the chain attached to the factory-bell,
+and rang it rapidly. There was a window thrown up, and a voice called.
+
+"Fire! fire!" he shouted. "Turn on the hose,--the lower back door."
+
+The flames streamed up fiercely now. It was plain that the mound had
+been saturated with kerosene.
+
+Daly hurried down, and opened a door. "Hurd and Byrnes are at the
+buckets and hose," he cried. "Where is it? O Mr. Darcy!"
+
+"Quick, quick!" shouted Jack, rushing by him.
+
+The men had the hose ready. They put it out of the window, turned on the
+stream, and in a few moments a column of dense smoke rose amid the
+arrowy flashes of lurid splendor. The watchman ran down from Connelly's.
+
+It was subdued in a few moments. They tore away the charred boxes and
+_débris_, smoking and smouldering. Underneath all they found the body of
+princely Bruno.
+
+"This is fiendish!" cried Jack, dragging the poor fellow away, his
+scorched coat smelling horribly. "Brave Bruno, you are the second hero
+of the night!"
+
+"Whatever dastardly devil did this, knows as much about Hope Mills as
+you or I," shouted Hurd savagely. "Bruno was poisoned first; and he
+wouldn't have taken any thing from a strange hand. But the fellow was a
+fool to build the fire here."
+
+"I don't know about that," said Darcy. "If it had burned the door down,
+it would have gone in the hall, and up the hatchway--if it was open."
+
+"By thunder! so it would; and right to the stock-room. That place must
+never be left open again while Hope Mills stands, or co-operation waves
+her starry banner in the breeze."
+
+"Loud applause!" said some one.
+
+The fire was thoroughly extinguished; and the guardian of the night
+decided to remain here, being within call if another disturbance should
+occur at Mrs. Connelly's. The bells rang out for midnight. A few, who
+had gathered at the alarm, dispersed: and every thing became quiet
+again,--deadly, solemnly quiet.
+
+Jack wanted to see Maverick, so he paced back to Mrs. Connelly's. He was
+trying to remember some distinctive mark of the man he had seen jump. He
+was too stout for Davy, and he could not believe such villany of the
+man. Then Price was a little lame from an old rheumatic affection, and
+would not have dared such a deed.
+
+Barton Kane had been washed, patched, bandaged, put to bed, and given an
+opiate; so now he was in a sound but rather disturbed sleep. The men
+gathered in the lunch-room, and discussed the cowardly attempt upon the
+mill, the day's affairs generally.
+
+"See how great a matter a little fire kindles," said Maverick. "But for
+McPherson's lecture here, I don't believe any of these things would have
+happened. It is a free country, of course, and a man has a right to air
+his ideas; but capital is not set firmly enough on its legs to stand a
+severe fire, and labor is in too great a superabundance. To seek to
+drain the ocean with a silver mug may be grand, but quite hopeless."
+
+One! The witching hour, and a few sleepy men began to yawn.
+
+"How odd it seems, not to hear trains in the night!" Maverick said
+presently. "A queer lock-out this."
+
+One, again. One, two, three: this time the fire-alarm.
+
+They rushed out toward the mill. Then they as suddenly wheeled around.
+In an instant the air seemed full of shouts and cries, and a broad sheet
+of flame flared up in the face of the tranquil heavens. A roar, like a
+mighty tramping of hosts, a crackling, snapping, sweeping sound.
+
+"It's Keppler's. Boyd's block will surely go!"
+
+The houses were frame, old and dry: Keppler's on the corner, the rest
+joined, like a row of sheds, and filled with the very poorest; a few
+apartments standing empty. The engines were out, but it was of little
+avail. The corner was just one brilliant sheet of lurid light. Shrieking
+women and children fled for their lives. The street swarmed again, and
+people trampled over one another in their wild terror. There was a
+crash, and the building fell in. The flames licked up the other fiery
+flood, and had a brave battle in the cellar. The engines played until
+the air was filled with smothering smoke, and there was nothing left but
+a long, blackened ruin.
+
+"It may be ungenerous to rejoice in any man's misfortune," said
+Maverick, "but in a sanitary point of view I am thankful those old
+rookeries have come to an end. Boyd wouldn't do any thing to them, and
+they were unfit for pigs to live in. And, as for Keppler's, there will
+be but one verdict this end of the town."
+
+Some one laid a hand on Jack Darcy's shoulder. He turned and saw Fred
+Lawrence.
+
+"They are all worried to death about you, old chap," began Fred. "Your
+mother, Miss Morgan, Sylvie,--and Irene is walking the floor. I have not
+seen her so excited since--since she had the fever. What a horrible
+thing! Was any one lost, do you know?"
+
+"They will not be able to tell that until morning, every thing is in
+such confusion. Pray God that the morning may dawn soon! I seem to have
+lived through years."
+
+The dawn came up by and by; first in faint opaline splendors, then
+scarlet and gold. The moon paled, and the stars dropped out, and there
+was a chirp of birds to welcome the new-born day.
+
+The shock of the fire cooled the temper of the raiders, for half the men
+were idle hangers-on, rather than absolute strikers. One frantic woman
+flew to the scene of devastation: her boy, four years old, was missing.
+They tried to comfort her with the thought that some neighbor had kindly
+taken him in, but she kept wildly imploring them to search.
+
+There was no further molestation of the men at Hope Mills. They walked
+in the yard quietly at seven o'clock, their faces touched with surprise
+and terror when they heard the story of the night. Barton Kane lay
+disabled at Mrs. Connelly's, and poor Bruno was buried with honors,
+regretted by the whole force.
+
+Jack called the men together, and addressed them briefly. He was very
+pale, and his usually bright, clear eyes were heavy.
+
+"I want to thank you," he said, in a tone that was a little unsteady
+with exhaustion and emotion, "I want to thank you for standing so
+bravely by me, and by your principles. We are all partners together, and
+what is one man's interest is every man's. I feel sure that we shall
+never have another difficulty. We have gone through the worst, and in a
+little while every man will have his free choice again. Let us all keep
+the warmest of friends until then."
+
+There was no cheering: they were not gay enough for that. Some of the
+men wrung his hand silently; then the women pressed forward, and invoked
+a blessing upon him.
+
+"We know better nor any of 'em what it was to have no fire, and childers
+cryin' for bread," said one woman, wiping her eyes with the end of her
+faded shawl. "And, thank the Lord, I've had bite, and sup, and fire,
+ever since the day Hope Mills was opened."
+
+The men outside were working at the ruins,--among them some of the
+strikers of yesterday. They found poor Mrs. Rooney's little Johnny,
+burned to a crisp; and in the house next to Keppler's they exhumed the
+body of Biddy Brady, a good-natured, efficient washerwoman, whose
+greatest fault was her intemperance. She and her son had gone to bed
+very drunk, after having a good time through the evening. The boy had
+been roused in season, but she had perished. It was as vivid and fervent
+a temperance-lecture as ever was given in Yerbury.
+
+About ten in the morning Jack Darcy returned home dead tired, as much
+with the excitement as the fatigue, took a bath, and went to bed.
+
+The Yerbury authorities looked sharply about them that day. The strikers
+were orderly and quiet, but they had lost ground. "The Evening
+Transcript" deprecated all this sort of business, and for once had no
+fling about the "Utopian theory of co-operation." But "The Leader" of
+the morning came out strongly in praise of the good order, forbearance,
+and _esprit de corps_ of Hope Mills, and called Mr. Darcy "our young and
+enterprising citizen, whom, we doubt not, we shall hear of in higher
+positions in life, which he has proved himself eminently worthy to
+fill."
+
+There was no great lament made about Boyd's Row or Keppler's saloon,
+except for the sad casualty it had caused; but the dastardly attack on
+Mrs. Connelly, and the fiendish attempt to burn Hope Mills, met with the
+severest condemnation.
+
+Maverick came around to the Darcys that evening. "I fancy I have found
+your man, Jack," he began. "Mrs. Stixon called me in towards night,
+saying Jem had been on a spree, and was dreadfully beaten. I found one
+side of his face scratched and bruised, and bits of gravel still
+adhering to the flesh. The right arm, on the same side, has one bone
+broken, and his shoulder is dislocated. He said he fell off of a stoop,
+and is dreadfully sullen. I asked him what stoop, but he would not tell.
+Do you remember which way the man fell?"
+
+Jack thought a moment. "On the right side, Maverick, away from me, or I
+should have seen his face. Just such a size man as Jem Stixon, too,"
+with a satisfied nod.
+
+"What will you do about it?"
+
+Jack took two or three turns across the floor. "See here, Maverick, we
+will not do any thing. You cure the poor fellow, and I think he will
+never try to damage Hope Mills again. I can hardly forgive him Bruno,
+though."
+
+"If I were Sylvie Barry,"--he never called her Mrs. Lawrence when
+speaking of her,--"I should say, 'Jack, you are an angel.'"
+
+Jack flushed. "Masculine angels!" he laughed.
+
+"Well, wasn't there Gabriel and a host of them? Why, Jack, they were
+_all_ masculine!"
+
+There was no need for earthly justice to meddle with Jem Stixon. His arm
+inflamed: he had led a hard life late years, and his system was in bad
+order. He would not listen to amputation until it was too late, and in
+less than a month he was dead. It was better for his poor hard-working
+wife and family.
+
+One other death grew out of the summer riots, though this was at a
+distance. Dennis Connelly had been working with a railroad-gang, and the
+strikers there had a desperate struggle with the civil authority. They
+were worsted in the end, and Connelly was one of the victims, or perhaps
+more truly speaking, a victim to bad whiskey, for when sober he was very
+peaceable. Kit sent for his body, and had him decently buried.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+THE strikers at the hat-factory did not carry the day. The employers
+were very indignant, and tabooed the union men altogether. At
+Garafield's the men were called in council, the points discussed, and a
+small advance in wages allowed. The co-operatives went their way
+quietly. Perhaps the most convincing argument was a very jubilant letter
+from Winston, part of which Darcy put up in the hall. He had just
+succeeded in making an important contract for two years, on very fair
+terms. That would see them through safely unless the whole world came to
+grief again!
+
+Jack wrote Miss McLeod a graphic account of the "labor troubles," and
+she replied with equally characteristic _verve_. "She could hardly
+decide," she declared, "whether to be glad, or sorry, that her young
+friend had grown so independent of her; but in any emergency she wished
+to be remembered."
+
+There was now a certain respect paid to Hope Mills, among the community
+at Yerbury. Perhaps there are no people so exacting and difficult to
+satisfy as those friends and neighbors whose advice you have not taken,
+and prospered without it. They indulge in a righteous self-complacency
+if you are unfortunate, and pity you grandly; but to own themselves
+mistaken is the one bitter flavor in the cup. There seemed to be but one
+point now upon which they were doubtful,--the honesty of the managers at
+the last moment. Every workman knew or might know exactly how affairs
+stood, but _they_ did not have the capital. Just at the end of the five
+years _somebody_ might abscond with the money-bag under his arm. It
+seemed so every way certain that human nature could not withstand the
+temptation.
+
+Yet there was growing up among the hands a curious neighborly sympathy,
+as if they were in some degree relatives; and they were made so, in
+fact, by some marriages of sons and daughters. They were more
+intelligent; they kept their houses cleaner, their little gardens
+prettier, not allowing them to go to weeds before the summer was half
+over. Those who could go to the industrial school learned a deal about
+sewing, and became seamstresses instead of mill-girls. Some made their
+own family dresses, some were very tasty milliners. It gave them a
+reliance upon what they could do themselves. The two daughters of one
+workman kept a little poultry-yard "scientifically," and dressed
+themselves from its proceeds. Industry became more general. Instead of
+dawdling away whole evenings in gossip, they had some light employment,
+and worked as they talked.
+
+The September showing was very encouraging. There were still a great
+many bankruptcies and losses, but some of them could not be guarded
+against. Darcy and Winston regularly eschewed speculation, though the
+latter confessed his fingers sometimes burned to be in the pie.
+
+"But, after all," he said frankly, "if the energy, ingenuity, ambition,
+and strength that are expended to make certain people buy and sell, over
+and over, a thing that can be no more valuable than the money it makes
+year by year, which often is not much,--if this were turned into
+industrial and commercial channels,--gad! what a country we would be!
+Our flag would float on every sea, our goods be in every port. And yet
+they go on, rich to-day because they have beggared their neighbor, poor
+to-morrow because their neighbor has beggared them. What idiotic
+business!"
+
+But I must go back a little with my hero. There were many things to
+occupy his mind, the summer of the "strikes;" yet through it all, like
+one strain of heavenly harmony in a clash of discord, he came to know
+the diviner needs of his being. Another man might have been dismayed at
+the revelation. Like a flash when the horizon is opened, he saw the
+light; and he knew, from the depths of the darkness the next moment,
+what manner of storm it would be.
+
+He had never weakened or frittered away his sweetest emotions on the
+various flirtations that fill the early years of so many men. He had
+liked and admired Sylvie Barry above all young women he had ever met;
+but this emotion, though pure and lasting, never stirred the ardor of
+his soul. Had it really lain untouched so long, or had some vague dream
+slipped into it the night he and Sylvie had planned the costume for
+Irene Lawrence, the time he first encountered her beauty in all its
+vivid splendor? To him she was a glorious young goddess.
+
+The long-ago summer day he had met the two in the phaeton, he was more
+keenly pained for her sake than his own. To be sure, his first emotion
+was that of angry indignation, sending the outraged blood through every
+pulse; then, as it cooled, the act appeared so utterly unwomanly. If she
+had passed him by carelessly--but to designedly attract his glance, and
+stab it thus, was as if a giant had taken a club to kill a butterfly
+because it breathed the fragrance of the rose. He shut out that vision.
+You can tell what impression she had made upon him, when he always
+thought of her as he saw her in the glow of Sylvie's pretty parlor, that
+summer night. His healthy, active temperament never brooded over
+disagreeable things a moment longer than necessity kept him there.
+
+She faded from his mind by degrees. Even when he took Fred back into the
+old regard, he thought of her as the possible wife of some millionnaire.
+When she returned to Yerbury, and shut herself up in stately despair,
+refusing even Sylvie's proffered sympathy, she puzzled him. How could
+she, so fond of admiration and gayety, live this nun's life, without the
+nun's spiritual exaltation? He passed her once or twice in the hall, as
+he was calling on Fred, but neither made any sign.
+
+Then came that terrible night, when he had found her astray, her brain
+consumed by the smouldering fire of isolation, when you have only the
+black, choking smoke that never blazes up in purifying flames. There are
+thousands of women who have done this, weakly, sentimentally, through
+the period of adversity that has tried the metal of all souls; but she,
+being stronger, more self-reliant, could not drop into puerile whining.
+
+At Depford Beach they had come in contact again. There was both
+attraction and repulsion in these two people, as there often is in
+strongly-marked, positive natures. She tolerated him because he was
+Sylvie's lover; despised him, believing that he meant to make a
+stepping-stone of this girl's wealth and position; and, in spite of
+herself, felt the current of his strength and buoyant energy. By slow
+degrees the unwilling truth was forced upon her, that God never created
+any human soul for its own self-destruction; that there was no absolute
+virtue in warping and twisting circumstances into chains and bonds, that
+were ordained for higher, nobler purposes. Her mental disease had run
+its course. Sylvie's sorrow was the final electric shock that broke the
+heavy soil of apathy.
+
+Her utter surprise when she found that through all these years Jack
+Darcy had refrained from influencing Sylvie in his behalf, was something
+quite indescribable. She thought she had fathomed men's souls with her
+keen insight, but this man was a Saul amid his peers. Had there been
+some subtile, far-reaching foundation for Fred's regard in the boyhood
+days,--something that their eyes, being holden with golden bonds, could
+not see?
+
+After the marriage there was a certain degree of association, not
+intimacy. And yet she set herself to watch him. Somewhere she would
+discern the print of the feet of clay this idol of Fred and Sylvie's
+possessed.
+
+It was a most fascinating yet dangerous employment. She used to sit
+there in her impassive grace, as they talked, weighing every word,
+testing every sentiment, watching the expressions that flitted over Jack
+Darcy's countenance, until it went everywhere with her, the blue-gray
+eyes piercing the very depths of her soul. They came to the one night
+when a glance stirred and troubled both, when the depths of both natures
+experienced that curious shock of repulsion and wonder. It was not love,
+it was too near, too awesome, yet too spiritually pure, to be hate,
+still it sent them apart none the less surely.
+
+By degrees, even amid the hard struggle of the strikes, he came to a
+self-knowledge. His perceptions were not easily confused; and by that
+intuitive process born pure in every soul, but too often marred and
+dulled by the many counterfeits put upon it, he knew this was love, a
+life-long passion for one woman, not because she had as yet answered any
+need of his nature, or promised any expansion into higher life. He loved
+her just as she was; for her beauty, her swift, proud grace, her virtues
+if she had any, her very faults, and of those he was not in doubt. And
+he set himself to win her with the same high courage that had taken Hope
+Mills in hand.
+
+Occasionally we see a man wrecked by this steady, persistent,
+overwhelming love for an inferior object, caught perhaps by some occult
+fascination that flashes all laws out of sight. We wonder how he can be
+so led astray; and yet it is an integral part of the man, a quality of
+the soul which he would not overcome and put in bonds if he could.
+
+He did not cringe or flatter, or adopt any of the fears or weaknesses of
+passion. It was not weak, and he did not fear. He meant to be master of
+her soul, and win her through that very power, struggle as she might. He
+would wait, if it were years, until she laid down her few weak weapons,
+and capitulated. From that time onward, there would be neither "mine"
+nor "thine."
+
+And now the fine, tested quality of his patience stood him in good
+stead. He might long to draw near, to clasp the snowy hand, to study the
+fathomless dusk of the eyes, and note the frightened droop of the
+fringed lids; but he held aloof. Still he went to Larch Avenue night
+after night; he dropped in of a morning when least expected,
+occasionally finding her alone for a few moments; he walked from church
+with them, by her side, the only times he came near her, and she felt in
+every pulse of her being the indefinable something that she was impelled
+to struggle against.
+
+A curious change came over her. The cold indifference melted to a rose
+hue of interest, a pliant softness stole over her figure, a certain
+buoyant tenderness diffused itself in her tone, her dusky eyes came to
+have a startled softness like a shy, frightened fawn. The old brilliant
+color returned to cheek and lip, yet toned with the tremulous throbbing
+of a new inward life, so exquisitely attuned that she could but listen
+to the harmonious melody.
+
+She came to understand presently; the intangible power in his demeanor
+roused her, I think; and her whole soul, every fibre of her body, rose
+up in mutinous revolt. Whither was this swift current carrying her? What
+great wave was this that struck at the very props of her own strength
+and reliance? How did this man dare to invade the walled sanctities of
+her being? She would have none of him: she would go on her solitary way,
+sufficient for herself. She, who had never loved amid all the
+beguilements the world had to offer, to be conquered by the very man she
+had trained herself to despise!
+
+Irene Lawrence found it hard fighting with this unseen foe. He seemed
+always lying in ambush, always armored with a word or sentiment to which
+she must assent, always before her in the place she had meant to be; and
+she would not throw up the white flag of defeat. She would not own to
+herself she experienced any alarm or annoyance.
+
+One evening Fred and Sylvie had gone to a neighbor's, and were
+momentarily expected. A peculiar temptation entered her soul. If this
+man must needs flutter in the flame, why should she be tender and
+careful of him? Others had dared her, to the burning of their very
+souls: if the experience was worth the pain, he should have it, and
+decide.
+
+She sat down at the piano, and shook a shower of melody out of her
+slender finger-ends. All the affluent grace of womanhood with the polish
+of society spoke in every curve of her pliant figure, in the dainty,
+delicate, high-bred gestures. The eyes hung out their false lights of
+treacherous intent amid the half-slumberous fire; the very lips seemed
+shaped and blossoming with a rare thrill of passion that could turn to a
+caress at a look. All along the brow ran fine sinuosities of light that
+dazzled like the tracery of pale flame. Had she blossomed into some
+royal midsummer flower that is seen but once in an age?
+
+She had motioned him close beside her with an impelling wave of the
+hand. He could feel her warmth, her fragrant breath; her soft billowy
+dress fell against his foot in a crested wave; her white hand and
+slender wrist, just toned, but not hidden, with rare lace like that of
+Arachne's spinning, wandered temptingly over toward him. A sudden
+delirium took possession of him, an exhilaration that steeped the brain,
+that stirred every pulse, that awoke in him an almost maddening desire
+to clasp her in his arms, to drain such sweetness from her lips that the
+whole world might be beggared ever after, and he not care.
+
+She knew the signs. She had seen more than one man dally on the brink,
+and then topple over to the blankness of despair. Even if she had pitied
+herself, which she did not, she could have had no mercy on him. Now she
+was set to her work, and she meant to do it if she brought into play
+every fascination art and nature had furnished her with.
+
+His soul rose and glowed within him. The music, the most ravishing of
+its kind, stirred him to that intensity of pain, it seemed as if he must
+cry out with torture. No suffering had ever been like this: if the
+doctrine of sacrificial fires were true, he might have purchased
+paradise.
+
+Did he mean never to stir or speak? Could that hand, lying so passively
+on the corner of the piano, remain unmoved, with hers just below it? Its
+defiant strength stung her.
+
+"They do not come,"--looking warily around, and passing him with her
+veiled eyes, rather than looking at him. "Are you growing weary? Shall I
+sing for you?"
+
+The tone had the melody of some lotus-freighted stream. She had thrown
+all her sweetness into it.
+
+"If you will."
+
+His was tremulous and husky with repressed passion.
+
+Her voice was not pure: it had the rich depth and pathos of contralto,
+and the vibrant clearness of soprano. Now it threaded a tremulous
+pathway among the pathetic minor notes, while the fingers seemed to drop
+a faint sigh of accompaniment,--
+
+          "Oh! when ye hear me gie a loud, loud cry,--
+             The broom blooms bonnie, and says it is fair,--
+           Shoot an arrow frae thy bow, and there let me lie,
+             And we'll never gang down to the broom ony mair.
+
+          "And when ye see that I'm lying cauld and dead,--
+             The broom blooms bonnie, and says it is fair,--
+           Then ye'll put me in a grave wi' a turf at my head,
+            And we'll never gang down to the broom ony mair."
+
+The last sad note died into summer-night sweetness. A current of bland,
+dangerous magnetism passed between them. She turned her splendid,
+passion-lighted eyes to him, and the subtle, measuring, conquering
+forces in the man and the woman met. With a mighty effort he thrust back
+desire, and compressed his lips to a line under the bronzed-gold
+moustache, while his eyes, like points of steel, never wavered.
+
+Irene Lawrence turned blindly, and held out her hands as if to grasp
+some sure stay. Just as surely as she had not won, she had lost.
+
+"I have tired you," he said,--a murmur just under his breath. "But you
+can hardly know the exquisite pleasure you have given me. It is perfect.
+We will have no more music to-night;" and he rose, shutting the piano
+down.
+
+She went to the open window like one in a trance, so stunned she could
+not even feel angry at his defiance of her. A long, long moment of
+silence: then they heard Sylvie's bright voice on the porch, and she
+came in with a waft of dewy, outdoor fragrance.
+
+Miss Lawrence went to her room presently, to fight out the battle with
+herself. She admitted then that she had come to love Jack Darcy; but she
+was strong and resolute, and would not be mastered by the passion. What
+could she do? for go away she must! Her imperious will and knowledge of
+men had availed her little to ward off this one's influence. Every
+instinct had been baffled, every movement had been met with a
+counterpoise. To stay here, and struggle, would be to yield eventually.
+
+There were dark circles under her eyes the next morning, tokens of her
+vigil and strife. She intrenched herself again behind that dumb apathy:
+she stood aloof from Sylvie. For days she escaped the watchful sight of
+Darcy; but she heard his voice, and every rebellious pulse was
+a-tremble. She cast about for some expedients whereby to escape her
+prison honorably, and after several fruitless efforts found one.
+
+In their early days there had been a girl-friend between Agatha and
+Gertrude, who had always held an attraction for the child Irene.
+Wealthy, beautiful, and accomplished, she had married a man who had
+already made for himself a name in statesmanship, a cultured and
+polished gentleman, and her bridal had been the theme of the day. But
+the fiend of intemperance had wrought destruction of her brilliant
+prospects, and made her life an open scandal. When it could no longer be
+borne, she gathered up the wreck of her fortune and her two little
+girls, and opened a boarding-school in a quiet, aristocratic old town.
+Irene had met her in New York after her own loss of fortune; and, though
+she had disdained sympathy, she was touched by Mrs. Trenholme's
+kindliness.
+
+She wrote to her now; and, of half a dozen applications, this was the
+only one that elicited a favorable reply. Mrs. Trenholme needed a
+teacher of French and music, and she knew Miss Lawrence's accent was
+perfect. The salary was not large, being four hundred dollars a year;
+but the duties were not very arduous, being all confined to
+school-hours.
+
+Much as Irene desired to go, there was some struggle with her pride
+before she could bring herself to accept. Only the prospect of that
+greater pride being laid in ruins before her eyes, could finally have
+induced her. Mrs. Trenholme expressed her delight warmly.
+
+There were strenuous objections on Fred's part when it came to be talked
+over. "She had no need. He was as much her protector as her father had
+been: indeed, was he not paying back the kindly care to himself,
+honoring his father's memory by doing as he would have done?"
+
+Sylvie came to the rescue presently.
+
+"I would let her go, Fred," she counselled. "Beverly is a delightful
+place, with many cultured people, and Mrs. Trenholme is just the woman
+to have an influence over Irene. You see, she gets so tired of having no
+pursuit, no strong interest. I could not endure it myself."
+
+"But she might have--I have dared to dream"--
+
+"Put away dreams, my darling." Sylvie's voice was unconsciously sad.
+Then, with a smile, and tears, "If God kept watch over us, and brought
+us to our haven, can we not trust him for her,--for them?"
+
+And so they acquiesced.
+
+When Jack Darcy left Miss Lawrence on that fateful evening, his whole
+soul was full of unrest. He paced the quiet streets in that tense mood
+which makes thought and breath alike torture. Now that it was over, he
+said, with the inconsequence of love, that he had been a weak, cowardly
+fool to fear his fate too much; and yet the next instant he knew he
+would surely have lost it all, and that in time she _must_ come to need
+him. If he _could_ wait! Well, he _would_ wait. He had not trained
+himself heretofore in these long reaches of patience for no purpose.
+That richly satisfying, inward sight, she could not take from him, that
+exultant faith which was warmed and fed from a thousand secret rills.
+
+He understood why she shunned him, why she had resolved to leave
+Yerbury; and he was thankful now that he had not ruined his cause by
+impatience. To think of not seeing her, of not hearing her voice, was
+like madness! His face grew thin, there were tense lines about his mouth
+and a set resolve in his eyes; yet to his fine temper came no moodiness
+or irritability. The task he had set for himself must be accomplished.
+He was as absolute in his self-denial as he would be in his happiness
+when that came.
+
+So she went away with the merest friendly farewell, and asked herself
+angrily, an hour after, what power this man had over her, and why she
+feared him? Surely there was not much of the lover in that calm face!
+
+He threw himself into the business with renewed energy. As I said, the
+September account was inspiriting. Prospects began to look brighter,
+only it was admitted on all hands that the days of large profits and
+quick fortunes were over for a long while, if not for all time. Industry
+was coming to be respected, and you heard less talk about luck.
+
+The outside world kept watch of them narrowly, jealously. If they turned
+out thieves and swindlers, it would not be for the lack of advice.
+However, they tramped on and on. Their store gained a little, and was
+productive of much good. Keppler went to a different part of the town.
+Boyd sold the ground, and a row of decent cottages were to be put up.
+Kit Connelly had been reimbursed by the town for her damages, and with
+Ben Hay's advice and counsel built an addition to her house, which he
+and Rose took for housekeeping purposes. The lunch and coffee room was a
+regular and profitable institution, and would be a business for one of
+the boys as he grew up to manhood.
+
+Sylvie and Fred went to the city for a winter holiday. Fred's book was
+elegantly brought out, and won him much praise and a little money.
+Sylvie achieved her ambition, and sold two pictures at what she
+considered marvellous prices, but she wisely confessed it only to her
+husband. They were invited to clubs and soirées; and Mrs. Minor was
+extremely affable, though she did blame Fred for allowing Irene to take
+such an idiotic step.
+
+Darcy and Maverick indulged in two or three flying trips. Miss McLeod
+liked nothing better than to get these young people together, and listen
+to the animated conversations, herself as spicy and sharp as any one.
+Miss Lothrop was married; and in the slim, fair, blushing girl the old
+lady had for companion now, he saw no danger.
+
+So the winter wore away, and the spring came again; and the man who was
+counting the days wondered wearily at times what his summer harvest
+might be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+THE regal woman who stepped from the car to the station-platform at
+Yerbury, one balmy day in early June, to be greeted by Fred and Sylvie
+Lawrence with the warmest of welcomes, was indescribably different from
+the pale, cold, haughty statue that had gone away. There was an
+elasticity in her step, a self-reliance in her air, and the peculiar
+confidence discipline wisely used inevitably imparts.
+
+Yet there had been no romantic or highly-wrought change in her. She had
+not taken up teaching from any heroic motive or the possible benefit to
+any one, but simply to protect herself from what she considered the
+weakness of her own soul, to get away from a danger she could not fight.
+Oh, how she had hated French verbs and exercises! If hers had been a
+susceptible musical temperament, she would have gone quite crazy with
+the blunders and sentimentalisms of young girls.
+
+After a month of it, she would have welcomed any relief, even the
+face-to-face conflict with Darcy. But she could not well run away from
+here, and her physical health was perfect: so there was nothing but to
+go straight on, and find that circumstances had to govern, that she
+could not shut herself up in sullen majesty, or fling off the daily
+duties for some wiser and more patient hands to pick up, and restore to
+beauty and harmony.
+
+She had a friend, the best and truest that a young woman could have,
+perhaps; a woman so admirably adapted to the training of girls, that it
+was no marvel she succeeded. Out of the ruins of her life she had built
+up another, wise, sweet, and strong. As Irene began to comprehend what
+Mrs. Trenholme had suffered and achieved, for the first time she paid an
+honest reverence to the nobility of character. And now she despised her
+own petty, shallow thoughts and beliefs. Her lofty despising of the
+world and the vain and selfish people therein had been only a kind of
+scornful regret for the treasures wrested from her, the glitter of
+fashion, the gauds of society. Fred had made a braver stand than she. He
+had not sought to poise himself on the easy, graceful rounds of past
+promises, and to dream futile weakening dreams, nor shut himself up in
+morbid isolation.
+
+After all, how little the great world really cared! It was the few
+friends, the small circle, the near influences, that were of importance.
+And when she found that here in cultured, delightful Beverly, she was
+sought out as an entertaining guest, that she had not lost caste because
+the great bubble of fortune had shivered into fragments, that dressing
+and shopping and flirting were not the highest of human enjoyments, she
+came to a very rational frame of mind, and to a certain extent enjoyed
+her life. But nature had not made her a teacher of children, and never
+does such women, until, informed by that highest of all love, they teach
+their own.
+
+She came back beautiful, strong, and brave, resolute to dare any thing.
+She dazzled them at the little tea-table by her swift, easy animation,
+her brilliancy, the color that went and came, the smiles that were like
+rippling billows over a sea. And Sylvie's heart went down like lead,
+though it was such a fair picture. "For now," she thought, "Jack will
+never dare to love her!"
+
+Perhaps not, if he had to begin now. But the love was in him and of him,
+and would be hers all his life long, whether she took it or no.
+
+He did not come for a day or two. She wondered a little: she even
+laughed lightly at her own past fear, the shadow she had conjured up,
+the warm blood ran so healthily through her veins now.
+
+He sauntered in one morning to find her cutting roses with Sylvie, the
+two the fairest flowers in all the garden. He was in no wise abashed at
+this vision of loveliness: if she had a dower of beauty, he had his
+unstained manhood.
+
+They chatted and laughed. Sylvie pinned a pale bud and geranium-leaf in
+his coat. He held out his hand to Irene with a curious little gesture.
+She had two or three great royal purple pansies clasped lightly in her
+fingers.
+
+She meant to refuse courteously, but their eyes met. Was it the old
+spell working?
+
+Surely, surely all these fine-spun barriers, all these cunning Alps that
+she had thrown up day after day, were over-leaped at a supple bound.
+Master herself she might; but he stood in his man's power and pride and
+love, a suppliant, yet king, asking with wordless lips a little favor,
+taking with calm yet passionate eyes a royal largess. Her heart sank;
+her breath came in one long, tremulous sweep. Whether she gave, or he
+took, she could not have told; but he went away with the pansies in his
+fingers, despite Sylvie's pleading for a longer stay.
+
+When he was quite out of sight, he kissed them, sweet, tender, longing
+kisses. Then he dropped them between the white leaves of a little book,
+to be sacred forever. Sylvie's _boutonnière_ might keep him company
+outwardly, but those no eye must feast upon.
+
+He took the fine right of a lover, not declared, yet certain of his
+ground, not using any power that she could disdain or wound, it was so
+delicate, intangible, the perfume without the flower, the little
+thoughtfulness for her, reaching for her fan, folding her shawl about
+her if the evening blew up cool, seeming to know her wants the very
+instant they occurred to herself. And though she rebelled in secret,
+though she resolved heroically to put an end to it all, the golden
+moment never came.
+
+It seemed as if the four were always together. Not but what Yerbury
+opened spacious doors to them, and proffered flattering welcomes; but
+they could not tone themselves to the insipidities of society. There
+were more complete and intense enjoyments. Sylvie and Irene took long
+drives through country lanes, or of a moonlight summer evening they all
+went. They sat on the porch, and Jack came strolling by: they went
+within, and there were books, music, desultory talking, and that
+wondrous, unseen guest in their midst.
+
+Sylvie rarely left her alone. They were not the women to tease one
+another by flippant jests or allusions; and Mrs. Fred, of all others,
+had a dread of thrusting any vulgar face on this colorless, yet
+delicious, atmosphere. Love knew his own, and was sacredly known of
+them.
+
+Irene Lawrence could no more help blossoming under the intense yet
+steady warmth of his temperament, the vivid creative life in every
+feature, than she could have helped being at all; and to have refused or
+destroyed the love would have been as sure spiritual suicide as a poison
+to the body. He understood that she came to see this presently; and then
+his suit was half won,--more than half: he had only to go on to the
+royal fruition of hope and patience. She no longer shunned him: she
+dropped that pointed, distant "Mr. Darcy," and in the soul's own
+language, gave him no outward name.
+
+And, when he took her at her royal flood-tide, the words of asking and
+answering mattered little. A look, a tone, a clasp of hands, a last
+struggle of her pride, and she was his.
+
+The wide, warm summer night closed about them: the dusk was rich with
+floating dewy perfumes, and golden stars dazzled in the clear, moonless
+sky. Out in the trees a little bird, startled from her nap, sang a
+brief, sweet song to her little ones. He drew the proud yet yielding
+figure closer: their hearts beat, their flushed cheeks touched, their
+lips met in one long, heavenly caress, their hands clasped until pulse
+throbbed with pulse in impassioned unison.
+
+Only a death and a great love can so change the aspect of life. As in
+the grave lies buried the dearest promises of love, hope, existence
+itself, and we learn in time to cling to every faint dream, so, like a
+resurrection, love sweeps away the sins and follies and weaknesses of
+the past, and rises from the dust and ashes transformed, renewed, nay,
+born again to the most sacred purposes.
+
+A strange, swift impression rushed over her as she met the eager,
+intense eyes. Was it in another world these arms had closed about her
+with their strong, restful clasp? She started abruptly: she seemed to
+listen, to puzzle herself with the bewildering impression.
+
+"What is it, my darling?" in a deep, ardent voice.
+
+"I don't know"--with a nervous laugh and shiver. "Have we met in some
+other country? Did you carry me over mountains, or through valleys, or
+hide me from a storm? Was this why I could never get away, try as I
+might?"
+
+Oh the wordless, entreating beauty of those eyes!
+
+"My queen, my own, you will never try again."
+
+"Never!" with a long, delicious, sobbing breath. "Why are you so
+irresistibly, so powerfully strong, Jack? Do you know,--you _must_ know
+how wicked I have been! If you cast me out, it would only be a proper
+punishment. I don't mean that my lips or my hands are blurred with other
+men's kisses. I never could endure that," shuddering. "But they laid
+down their hearts, and I walked over them: they were weak, and I was
+strong! And one night I tried"--her voice sank to a beseeching,
+half-shamed murmur.
+
+"Yes," he gave a pure, genial laugh, rich in his own sustaining
+strength. "You would have broken my heart, your own too; for I think,
+even then, you loved me."
+
+"I surely have never been indifferent. It was either love or hate. Do
+you remember the first evening I saw you in the parlor yonder?"
+
+She learned ere long, that he had never forgotten any thing; but the
+depth and perfectness of his love she could not learn in a day.
+
+If Jack Darcy had been patient hitherto, that grand quality seemed
+suddenly exhausted. He absolutely hurried her into a marriage,--hurried
+Sylvie too, who wanted the courtship to proceed with measured, golden
+steps.
+
+"As if it were not to be a courtship all one's life!" said radiant Jack.
+"Now the moments break in the middle, there are tangled ends, and
+endless beginnings, and one can hardly remember where one left off. Were
+you sorry to go to Fred?"
+
+"Why, no!" with wide-open, surprised eyes.
+
+He carried the day at last, and September was appointed. They would be
+married in the old church. Mrs. Minor responded to the tidings by a
+visit. She had treasured up a great many things to say to Irene; but for
+once she was quite overwhelmed, and her sneers and patronage fell to the
+ground. Though she did remark to her mother,--
+
+"Of course I _am_ disappointed that Irene, with her face and style, has
+not done any better; but you cannot expect much after one passes twenty.
+Mr. Darcy has improved certainly, and Irene is not as exclusive as we
+older girls were. It is a great pity she did not go out to Gertrude."
+
+For George Eastman, with a cat-like propensity, always came down on his
+feet. He was now at the flood-tide of prosperity--on other people's
+money. Mrs. Eastman was regal in velvets, sables, and diamonds, queening
+it at St. Petersburg. Some day there might be a crash again, but they
+would be well out of the way.
+
+Miss Lawrence would have no diamonds, and no show; but she was dazzling
+in her radiant loveliness; and, if Jack was not handsome, his superb
+manliness redeemed him. Hope Mills took a holiday. All Yerbury went, it
+seemed; and those who could not get in remained outside for a glimpse.
+
+Sylvie and Fred leaned over the registry in the vestry-room. In a bold
+hand the bridegroom had written, "John Beaumanoir Darcy."
+
+"A compliment to Irene's pride," laughed Sylvie. "The most aristocratic
+name of them all!"
+
+The old house was brightened up a bit before the young couple returned.
+Gentle Mrs. Darcy wondered how it would be between the old and the new
+love; but she remembered with charity, that she had taken the fresh
+young love of another Darcy, and was content with her day.
+
+The young people brought a new atmosphere with them, but it did not
+clash with the old. Jane Morgan was planning a home for herself. One of
+the cut-up farms had been put together again; and she had taken a
+five-years' lease at a low rate, to try a prudent and sensible scheme of
+philanthropy. Maverick had been intensely puzzled by Jack's love-affair,
+and could not yet account for it satisfactorily, but watched them both
+with a kind of amused interest, and dreamed of the deft, dainty little
+fairy down at his aunt's.
+
+I suppose I ought to say that Mrs. Jack Darcy vied with her husband in
+all good works,--in schools and clubs, and plans for everybody's
+improvement; but it was _not_ her _forte_. He was too well satisfied
+with her love for him, her music, her enchanting ways, to wish her any
+different; and I think he would have been jealous, with that exclusive,
+tender, adoring jealousy, that cannot endure its choice treasures
+lavished upon others. She was kindly and generous in a stately, queenly
+fashion; but what between Jack, who was a more importunate lover than
+ever, and the baby born at Larch Avenue, she had her hands quite full.
+
+The five years of mutual copartnership drew to a close. Their young
+engineer had not blown up the mills; Bob Winston did not go off at the
+last moment with the balance at the bank; Jack Darcy had not falsified
+accounts: but it came out just as _everybody_ had predicted that it
+would! "If your men were honest and honorable, co-operation could not
+fail of success. It was the simplest of all schemes," said "The Evening
+Transcript."
+
+The two offices were thrown into one by the sliding-doors, and the
+workmen and women assembled in their holiday gear. Jack Darcy was really
+struck with the change in their faces and the general demeanor. They had
+a brisk, cheery, self-reliant air: there was a certain neatness and
+respectability about which they used not to care in the old times. The
+boys of five years ago were grown men, and there wasn't a sturdier one
+among them than Barton Kane.
+
+And now Jack Darcy proceeded to read the statement of the whole period,
+to which every one listened with the most profound attention.
+
+At the close of the first year, after rent, wages, and all other
+expenses were taken out, the accumulation of profits had been
+$21,642.27. One-half of this, $10,821.13.5, had been turned directly
+over to capital: the other half, the profit of labor, was divided again
+in equal shares, one going to capital for every person, the other,
+amounting to $5,410.56.7, paid over to them as compensation for
+three-quarter wages. Of course the men had been delighted. They
+remembered their first joy even now.
+
+Then had followed the disastrous second year, which had no such golden
+story to tell. The first six months, interest and discount had made
+horrible inroads into capital, and there had not only been no surplus,
+but an actual deficiency. The latter half showed a poor frightened
+balance of $137. But this year they improved greatly in economic
+management and several new processes that gave larger profit with less
+labor and outlay, so the hard strain had not been entirely without its
+uses. Capital had gone down in the valley of humiliation, and had a
+sorry time of it; but with it had come a knowledge and sympathy they
+could have acquired in no other way.
+
+The third year had proved a grand success. They had all worked so
+heartily together, and business had been undeniably good. Profits had
+been $41,854.92, with very limited discounts. After this there was none,
+and unused capital began to draw a little interest. This year there had
+been $10,963.73 to pay over to the men on the quarter share. The fourth
+year there had been numerous bankrupt stocks thrown on the market, and
+every one trying to do his utmost again: still the balance had been by
+no means disheartening, amounting to $34,982.67; capital's share being
+$17,491.33, and the wages overplus $8,745.66. The last year's profits
+had footed up $43,101.56.
+
+There was now in accrued capital stock $106,288.81.5; and this was to be
+divided in the _pro rata_ of each man's share, the larger amounts making
+the most, of course. And now they saw the object of saving. They had
+earned full wages and something beside; and, though wages had not
+reached the high point of good times, on the other hand they had not
+fallen below a reasonable standard, even with the bad year. There had
+been steady work for the whole five years, and every man had been
+practised in thrift, economy, and self-denial.
+
+Of those who had begun with them, seven had been discharged for
+drunkenness and insubordination, their share forfeited to the fund for
+sick and disabled workmen; three had gone out from loss of faith in the
+plan, accepting Winston's offer to sell; four had died, and thirteen had
+left from various other causes. So that there had been a much greater
+degree of steadiness than usually obtains among factory-workmen. This
+led to a decided improvement in many other respects. With a prospect of
+being permanent, the men were induced to buy homes, and took a greater
+interest in the management and welfare of their own town.
+
+The balance was divided, each man receiving his check, and with it a
+detailed statement of the whole five years. They were now quite free,
+the industrial partnership having legally expired. Hope Mills would take
+a fortnight holiday for repairs and re-organization.
+
+"What if there were to be no re-organization?" exclaimed Ben Hay
+suddenly.
+
+The men stared blankly at one another. No "Hope Mills," and the
+foundation-stone of life would have fallen out!
+
+Robert Winston addressed them, thanking them very heartily for their
+co-operation, and expressing a hope that each man would be satisfied
+with the result of five of the hardest years the country had ever known.
+There was no doubt now, judging from our exports, and the amount of
+money coming in from every quarter of the globe, as one might say, that
+we had entered upon an era of prosperity. We had been educated to the
+practice of prudence, of common-sense, and sound principles, we had
+gained fibre and stamina, and he hoped we had gained honesty and
+integrity. If we could not always compete with low-priced manufacturers,
+the solid truth was made manifest in the end. They might take for their
+passwords, "Honesty, industry, and fidelity."
+
+There was a great deal of cheering, and then Darcy was called upon for a
+speech. He did himself infinite credit, for in these five years not a
+man among them had made more rapid strides than Jack Darcy. As he stood
+there now, noble in form, in bearing, and with his good, strong, manly
+face, they felt somehow that he was _their_ hero, and the cheering was
+heartier than ever.
+
+Then Cameron must say a few words, and Ben Hay and Jesse Gilman; and, as
+Jack declared afterward, it was a regular experience-meeting among
+brethren. They pressed around, and shook hands with Darcy and Winston,
+the captain and the pilot with whom they had weathered gales, and been
+brought safely into port. And they would not let them stir out of the
+building until they had appointed a meeting to form the company again,
+this time on a somewhat stronger basis. They were firmly convinced now
+that this was the only way in which it was possible for workmen to make
+any advancement.
+
+At length the crowd began to disperse. Jack started homeward; but,
+before he had walked half the distance, Davy, one of the men who had
+gone out in the first trouble, confronted him suddenly, seizing his
+hand.
+
+"O Mr. Darcy!" said he in a most eager tone, "are you going to form over
+again? Do you think there's a chance for me to be taken back? There
+hasn't been a day nor a night but what I've cursed myself for being such
+a fool as to let anybody talk me out of a good job. I see just how it is
+now. And, if I can get back again, I'll stand by the old ship through
+thick and thin. O Mr. Darcy! please speak a good word for me!"
+
+"That I will, Davy, if it is needed."
+
+"Thank you, thank you, a thousand times!" cried the poor fellow
+gratefully.
+
+Yerbury had plenty of praise now. To be sure, times _had_ improved. If
+every year had been like the second, it would not have been possible to
+make co-operation work; but then, would it have been possible to carry
+on any business with continual loss? The starting of Hope Mills had
+inspired other disheartened firms, and given an impetus to Yerbury
+industries that might have lain much longer in the Slough of Despond.
+
+Fred and Sylvie came over to the Darcys to tea that evening, and
+Maverick dropped in of course.
+
+"Mrs. Darcy," he exclaimed, "I do not see why you did not have a
+daughter for me to marry! Then we could all have been relations, you
+see. I think it a great mistake on your part."
+
+Mrs. Darcy glanced at her son with a peculiar light in her eyes.
+
+Jack laughed. "She is thinking," he explained, "that if there had been
+another one, I should have gone off long ago to seek my fortune. I have
+learned that God may have better work for one than simply following out
+his own will;" and his voice dropped to a reverential tone.
+
+Maverick studied him with a peculiar interest. All these years there had
+been growing up in Jack Darcy a plant of nobler promise than mere
+worldly ambition. Not that he in any manner despised wealth: he had come
+to understand its true uses. The same power that had educated the
+workmen had been going on with silent, steady processes in him. He had
+come to comprehend the dignity of the soul, and that God desired his
+return in the deeds done for one another, in the continual progress, the
+greatness, nobleness, and loyalty we offered "to one of the least of
+these." Was this true religion,--the simple doctrine of the Cross? And
+Maverick bowed his head in unconscious reverence.
+
+They started homeward presently. Sylvie and Irene had some "last words"
+about baby Lawrence, and the two men paced up and down the porch a few
+moments.
+
+"Thank God that it all came out so well!" said Jack in his strong,
+reverent tone.
+
+Fred put his arm over Jack's shoulder. The two men seemed types of all
+that was highest and finest in human nature.
+
+"Jack," began the other in his full, rich tone, tremulous with emotion,
+"do you remember that in my romantic boyhood I used to liken you to King
+Arthur? You have merged into a nobler hero since that day. Who but a
+Sir Galahad, true, strong, unselfish, at once just yet tender, ambitious
+for the Holy Grail of our times, yet never swerving from the path of
+honor; keeping his own soul stainless amid the many temptations of the
+world--who save such a soul could have gone on in your path to the end?
+And of the other Christ-like virtue"--
+
+"Don't, don't, Fred! You always did rate me too highly, you know. I am
+only a man."
+
+"It is something to be a man in these days," returned the other.
+
+The shady blue eyes smiled out of their twilight depth.
+
+"Fred, where are you?" cried a sweet voice.
+
+"You gave me _her_. You taught me to gain the great prize of my life as
+surely as you trained the men in the mill yonder. God bless you!"
+
+
+
+
+LEE AND SHEPARD'S
+
+SELECT FICTION
+
+
+_All prices given are for CLOTH BINDING, unless otherwise specified_
+
+  =The Way of the World.= By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
+        Illustrated                                            $1.50
+  =Living Too Fast.= By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
+        Illustrated                                             1.50
+  =Indoors and Out.= By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
+        Illustrated                                             1.50
+  =The Fortunate Island.= By Max Adeler. Illustrated            1.00
+  =Dora Darling, the Daughter of the Regiment.= By Jane G.
+        Austin. Illustrated                                     1.00
+  =Dora Darling and Little Sunshine.= By Jane G. Austin         1.00
+  =Life in Danbury.= By James M. Bailey. Illustrated            1.00
+  =Mr. Phillips' Goneness.= By James M. Bailey. Illustrated     1.00
+  =The Danbury Boom.= By James M. Bailey. Illustrated           1.00
+  =They All Do It.= By James M. Bailey                          1.00
+  =Running to Waste.= By George M. Baker. Illustrated           1.50
+  =Something Better.= By George M. Baker                        1.00
+  =A Year Worth Living.= By Rev. W. M. Baker                    1.00
+  =Bright Days in the Old Plantation Time.= By Mary
+        Ross Banks. Illustrated                                 1.50
+  =Simplicity and Fascination.= By Anne Beale                   1.00
+  =Nora's Return=; a Sequel to "The Doll's House." By
+        Ednah. D. Cheney. Palatine Boards                        .50
+  =Life and Times of Jesus=, as related by Thomas Didymus.
+        By Rev. James Freeman Clarke                            1.50
+  =His Marriage Vow.= By Mrs. C. F. Corbin                      1.00
+  =Nobody's Husband.= By Samuel W. Cozzens                      1.00
+  =Andersonville Violets.= By Herbert W. Collingwood            1.00
+  =Battles at Home.= By Mary G. Darling. Illustrated            1.00
+  =In the World.= By Mary G. Darling. Illustrated               1.00
+  =The Dawning.=                                                1.50
+  =The Lily and the Cross.= By James De Mille. Illustrated      1.00
+  =Fore and Aft.= By Robert B. Dixon. Cloth                     1.25
+  =Herman, or Young Knighthood.= By E. Foxton. 2 volumes        3.50
+  =Perseverance Island.= By Douglas Frazar                      1.50
+  =Castle Foam.= By Harry W. French                             1.00
+  =Ego.= By Harry W. French                                     1.00
+
+
+=By MARY A. DENISON=
+
+          =His Triumph=            1.00
+          =Like a Gentleman=       1.00
+          =Mr. Peter Crewitt=      1.00
+          =Rothmell=               1.00
+          =Tell Your Wife=         1.00
+          =That Wife of Mine=      1.00
+          =That Husband of Mine=   1.00
+
+
+=By AMANDA M. DOUGLAS=
+
+          =Osborne of Arrochar=               $1.50
+          =A Modern Adam and Eve=              1.50
+          =The Fortunes of the Faradays=       1.50
+          =A Woman's Inheritance=              1.50
+          =Claudia=                            1.50
+          =Floyd Grandon's Honor=              1.50
+          =Foes of Her Household=              1.50
+          =From Hand to Mouth=                 1.50
+          =Home Nook=                          1.50
+          =Whom Kathie Married=                1.50
+          =Hope Mills=                         1.50
+          =In Trust=                           1.50
+          =Nelly Kinnard's Kingdom=            1.50
+          =Stephen Dane=                       1.50
+          =Out of the Wreck=                   1.50
+          =Seven Daughters=                    1.50
+          =Sydnie Adriance=                    1.50
+          =The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe=  1.50
+          =Lost in a Great City=               1.50
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  =Nuna, the Brahmin Girl.= By Harry W. French. Illustrated     1.00
+  =The Only One.= By Harry W. French                            1.00
+  =A Captive of Love.= By Edward Greey. Illustrated.            1.50
+  =The Golden Lotus.= By Edward Greey. Illustrated              1.75
+  =Malbone.= An Oldport Romance. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson  1.50
+  =Marion Graham.= By Margaret Woods Lawrence                   1.50
+  =The Demagogue.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby)                       1.50
+  =A Paper City.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby)                        1.00
+  =The Morals of Abou Ben Adhem.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby)        1.00
+  =Ekkoes from Kentucky.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby). Illustrated   1.00
+  =Swingin' Round the Cirkle.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby). Illus.   1.00
+  =Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulger.= By
+      Ingersoll Lockwood                                        2.00
+  =Little Giant Boab and His Talking Raven Tabib.= By
+      Ingersoll Lockwood                                        2.00
+  =Barbara Thayer.= By Annie Jenness Miller                     1.50
+
+
+=By SOPHIE MAY=
+
+Sophie May's "Grown-up" Stories
+
+          =Drone's Honey.=                          1.50
+          =Janet: a Poor Heiress.= Illustrated      1.50
+          =Our Helen.= Illustrated                  1.50
+          =Quinnebasset Girls.= Illustrated         1.50
+          =The Asbury Twins.= Illustrated           1.50
+          =The Doctor's Daughter.= Illustrated      1.50
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  =Which--Right or Wrong?= By Miss M. L. Moreland. Illustrated   1.25
+  =The Blind Men and the Devil.= By Phineas                      1.00
+  =The Puddleford Papers, or Humors of the West.= By H. H.
+       Riley. Illustrated                                        1.00
+  =Rosecroft.= By W. M. F. Round                                 1.00
+  =Achsah.= By W. M. F. Round. Illustrated                       1.00
+  =The Fall of Damascus.= By W. W. Russell                       1.00
+  =Daisy Travers.= By Mrs. A. F. Samuels. Illustrated            1.50
+  =Seola.= By Mrs. J. Gregory Smith                              1.00
+  =Brushes and Chisels.= By Signor Teodoro Serrao. Tri-color
+       cloth,                                                    1.00
+  =A Tight Squeeze.= By "Staats." Cloth, $1.00; paper,            .50
+  =John Thorn's Folks.= By Angeline Teal                         1.00
+  =Man Proposes.= By F. H. Underwood                             1.00
+  =Lord of Himself.= By F. H. Underwood                          1.00
+  =Edward Burton.= By Henry Wood                                  .25
+  =Mrs. Armington's Ward.= By Mrs. D. Thew Wright                1.00
+
+
+=By VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND=
+
+          A Boston's Girl's Ambition      $1.50
+          That Queer Girl                  1.50
+          Daryll Gap                       1.50
+          Lenox Dare                       1.50
+          A Woman's Word                   1.50
+          But a Philistine                 1.50
+          Only Girls                       1.50
+          The Deerings of Medbury          1.00
+          The Hollands                     1.00
+          Six in All                       1.00
+          The Mills of Tuxbury             1.00
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  An American Girl Abroad. By Adeline Trafton. Illustrated      1.00
+  Katherine Earle. By Adeline Trafton                           1.50
+  His Inheritance. By Adeline Trafton.                          1.50
+
+
+=By J. T. TROWBRIDGE=
+
+          Neighbor Jack       $1.50
+          Cudjo's Cave         1.50
+          Drummer Boy          1.50
+          Three Scouts         1.50
+          Farnell's Folly      1.50
+          Martin Merrivale     1.50
+          Neighbors' Wives     1.50
+          Coupon Bonds         1.50
+
+
+=By Judge D. P. THOMPSON.=
+
+  The Green Mountain Boys                                    1.00
+  The Rangers, or The Tory's Daughter                        1.00
+  May Martin, and Other Tales of the Green Mountains         1.00
+  Locke Amsden, the Schoolmaster                             1.00
+  The Wreck of the Chancellor. By Jules Verne                1.00
+  A Winter in the Ice. By Jules Verne. Illustrated           1.00
+  The Adventures of a Chinaman. By Jules Verne. Illustrated  1.50
+  Around the World in Eighty Days. By Jules Verne.   "       1.00
+  The Italian Girl. By Mrs. K. S. Washburn                   1.00
+  Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear. By Mrs. K. S. Washburn      1.00
+  The Gates Wide Open. By George Wood                        1.50
+
+
+THE FOLLOWING ARE OFFERED IN PAPER COVERS
+
+  Mr. Phillips' Goneness. By James M. Bailey      $0.50
+  The Danbury Boom. By James M. Bailey              .50
+  They All Do It. By James M. Bailey                .50
+  Something Better. By George M. Baker              .50
+  Nobody's Husband. By S. W. Cozzens                .50
+  Andersonville Violets. By Herbert W. Collingwood  .50
+  Mr. Peter Crewitt. By Mary A. Denison             .50
+  Tell Your Wife. By Mary A. Denison                .50
+  That Wife of Mine. By Mary A. Denison             .50
+  That Husband of Mine. By Mary A. Denison          .50
+  Lost in a Great City. By Amanda M. Douglas        .50
+  A Paper City                                      .50
+  Morals of Abou Ben Adhem                          .50
+  Ekkoes from Kentucky                              .50
+  Swingin' Round the Cirkle                         .50
+  The Puddleford Papers. By H. H. Riley             .50
+  Barbara Thayer. By Annie Jenness Miller           .50
+  The Blind Men and the Devil. By Phineas           .50
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    _Any of the above sent, postpaid, on receipt of price_
+           LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers      BOSTON
+
+
+
+
+HISTORICAL BOOKS * * * *
+
+* * * * FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Young Folks' History of the United States_
+
+By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. Illustrated. $1.50.
+
+          The story of our country in the most reliable and
+          interesting form. As a story-book it easily leads
+          all other American history stories in interest,
+          while as a text-book for the study of history it
+          is universally admitted to be the best.
+
+
+_Young Folks' Book of American Explorers_
+
+By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. Uniform with the "Young Folks' History of
+the United States." One volume, fully illustrated. Price $1.50.
+
+          "It is not a history told in the third person, nor
+          an historical novel for young folks, where the
+          author supposes the chief characters to have
+          thought and said such and such things under such
+          and such circumstances; but it is the genuine
+          description given by the persons who experienced
+          the things they described in letters written
+          home."--_Montpelier Journal._
+
+
+_The Nation in a Nutshell_
+
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE, author of "Heroes of History," "Young Folks'
+History of England," "Young Folks' History of Ireland," etc. Price 50
+cents.
+
+          "To tell the story of a nation like ours in a
+          nutshell, requires a peculiar faculty for
+          selecting, condensing, and philosophizing. The
+          brevity with which he relates the principal events
+          in American history, does not detract from the
+          charming interest of the narrative
+          style."--_Public Opinion._
+
+
+_Young People's History of England_
+
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE. Cloth, illustrated. $1.50.
+
+          "The whole narrative is made interesting and
+          attractive--in every way what a book of this kind
+          should be in its clearness of statement, freshness
+          of style, and its telling of the right
+          ways."--_Critic._
+
+
+_Handbook of English History_
+
+Based on "Lectures on English History," by the late M. J. GUEST, and
+brought down to the year 1880. With a Supplementary Chapter on the
+English Literature of the 19th Century. By F. H. UNDERWOOD, LL.D. With
+Maps, Chronological Table, etc. $1.50.
+
+          "It approaches nearer perfection than anything in
+          the line we have seen. It is succinct, accurate,
+          and delightful."--_Hartford Evening Post._
+
+
+_Young People's History of Ireland_
+
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE, author of "Young People's History of
+England," "Young Folks' Heroes of History," etc. With an introduction by
+JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. Cloth, illustrated. $1.50.
+
+          "The history is like a novel, increasing in
+          interest to the very end, and terminating at the
+          most interesting period of the whole; and the
+          reader lays down the book a moment in enthusiastic
+          admiration for a people who have endured so much,
+          and yet have retained so many admirable
+          characteristics."--_N.Y. World._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+YOUNG FOLKS'
+
+BOOKS OF TRAVEL
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DRIFTING ROUND THE WORLD; A Boy's Adventures by Sea and Land
+
+        By CAPT. CHARLES W. HALL, author of "Adrift in the
+          Ice-Fields," "The Great Bonanza," etc. With
+          numerous full-page and letter-press illustrations.
+          Royal 8vo. Handsome cover. $1.75. Cloth, gilt,
+          $2.50.
+
+"Out of the beaten track" in its course of travel, record of adventures,
+and descriptions of life in Greenland, Labrador, Ireland, Scotland,
+England, France, Holland, Russia, Asia, Siberia, and Alaska. Its hero is
+young, bold, and adventurous; and the book is in every way interesting
+and attractive.
+
+
+_EDWARD GRÉEY'S JAPANESE SERIES_
+
+
+YOUNG AMERICANS IN JAPAN; or, The Adventures of the Jewett Family and
+their Friend Oto Nambo
+
+        With 170 full-page and letter-press illustrations.
+          Royal 8vo, 7 × 9½ inches. Handsomely
+          illuminated cover, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold,
+          $2.50.
+
+This story, though essentially a work of fiction, is filled with
+interesting and truthful descriptions of the curious ways of living of
+the good people of the land of the rising sun.
+
+
+THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO; or, The Further Adventures of the Jewett
+Family and their Friend Oto Nambo
+
+        With 169 illustrations. Royal 8vo, 7 × 9½
+          inches. With cover in gold and colors, designed by
+          the author, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold, $2.50.
+
+"A book full of delightful information. The author has the happy gift of
+permitting the reader to view things as he saw them. The illustrations
+are mostly drawn by a Japanese artist, and are very unique."--_Chicago
+Herald._
+
+
+THE BEAR WORSHIPPERS OF YEZO AND THE ISLAND OF KARAFUTO; being the
+further Adventures of the Jewett Family and their Friend Oto Nambo
+
+          180 illustrations. Boards, $1.75. Cloth, $2.50.
+
+Graphic pen and pencil pictures of the remarkable bearded people who
+live in the north of Japan. The illustrations are by native Japanese
+artists, and give queer pictures of a queer people, who have been seldom
+visited.
+
+
+_HARRY W. FRENCH'S BOOKS_
+
+
+OUR BOYS IN INDIA
+
+       The wanderings of two young Americans in Hindustan,
+         with their exciting adventures on the sacred rivers
+         and wild mountains. With 145 illustrations. Royal
+         8vo, 7 × 9½ inches. Bound in emblematic covers
+         of Oriental design, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold,
+         $2.50.
+
+
+While it has all the exciting interest of a romance, it is remarkably
+vivid in its pictures of manners and customs in the land of the Hindu.
+The illustrations are many and excellent.
+
+
+OUR BOYS IN CHINA
+
+        The adventures of two young Americans, wrecked in
+          the China Sea on their return from India, with
+          their strange wanderings through the Chinese
+          Empire. 188 illustrations. Boards, ornamental
+          covers in colors and gold, $1.75. Cloth, $2.50.
+
+This gives the further adventures of "Our Boys" of India fame in the
+land of Teas and Queues.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+IRENE E. JEROME'S
+
+ART BOOKS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+        =IN A FAIR COUNTRY.= With 55 full-page illustrations;
+          engraved by Andrew. Nearly 100 pages of text, by Thomas
+          Wentworth Higginson. Gold  cloth, full gilt, $6.00;
+          Turkey morocco, $15.00;  tree calf, $15.00; English seal
+          style, $10.00.
+
+Miss Jerome has caught the very glamour of the woodland and the lea with
+her pencil, transferring it to paper with the delicacy of an exquisite
+photograph, while Colonel Higginson's delightful style brings out the
+beauty of his topics most satisfactorily. As a specimen of the
+book-maker's art, the volume leaves nothing to be asked.
+
+
+        =A BUNCH OF VIOLETS.= Original illustrations,
+          engraved on wood and printed under the direction
+          of GEORGE T. ANDREW. 4to, cloth, $3.75: Turkey
+          morocco, $9.00; tree calf, $9.00; English seal
+          style, $7.00.
+
+The new volume is akin to the former triumphs of this favorite artist,
+whose "Sketch Books" have achieved a popularity unequalled in the
+history of fine art publications. In the profusion of designs,
+originality, and delicacy of treatment, the charming sketches of
+mountain, meadow, lake, and forest scenery of New England here
+reproduced are unexcelled. After the wealth of illustration which this
+student of nature has poured into the lap of art, to produce a volume in
+which there is no deterioration of power or beauty, but, if possible,
+increased strength and enlargement of ideas, gives assurance that the
+foremost female artist in America will hold the hearts of her legion of
+admirers.
+
+
+        =NATURE'S HALLELUJAH.= Presented in a series of
+          nearly fifty full-page original illustrations
+          (9½ x 14 inches), engraved on wood by GEORGE T.
+          ANDREW. Elegantly bound in gold cloth, full gilt,
+          gilt edges, $6.00; Turkey morocco, $15.00; tree
+          calf, $15.00; English seal style, $10.00.
+
+This volume has won the most cordial praise on both sides of the water.
+Mr. Francis H. Underwood, U. S. Consul at Glasgow, writes concerning it:
+"I have never seen anything superior, if equal, to the delicacy and
+finish of the engravings, and the perfection of the press-work. The copy
+you sent me has been looked over with evident and unfeigned delight by
+many people of artistic taste. Every one frankly says, 'It is impossible
+to produce such effects here,' and, whether it is possible or not, I am
+sure it is _not done_; no such effects are produced on this side of the
+Atlantic. In this combination of art and workmanship, the United States
+leads the world; and you have a right to be proud of the honor of
+presenting such a specimen to the public."
+
+
+        =ONE YEAR'S SKETCH BOOK.= Containing forty-six
+          full-page original illustrations, engraved on wood
+          by ANDREW; in same bindings and at same prices as
+          "Nature's Hallelujah."
+
+"Every thick, creamy page is embellished by some gems of art. Sometimes
+it is but a dash and a few trembling strokes; at others an impressive
+landscape, but in all and through all runs the master touch. Miss Jerome
+has the genius of an Angelo, and the execution of a Guido. The beauty of
+the sketches will be apparent to all, having been taken from our
+unrivalled New England scenery."--_Washington Chronicle._
+
+
+        =THE MESSAGE OF THE BLUEBIRD, Told to Me to Tell
+          to Others.= Original illustrations engraved on
+          wood by ANDREW. Cloth and gold, $2.00; palatine
+          boards, ribbon ornaments, $1.00.
+
+"In its new bindings is one of the daintiest combinations of song and
+illustration ever published, exhibiting in a marked degree the fine
+poetic taste and wonderfully artistic touch which render this author's
+works so popular. The pictures are exquisite, and the verses exceedingly
+graceful, appealing to the highest sensibilities. The little volume
+ranks among the choicest of holiday souvenirs, and is beautiful and
+pleasing."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+          LEE AND   *  *  SEVENTY-FIVE CENT *
+
+           *  SHEPARD'S             *   JUVENILES
+
+_Comprising new editions of the following popular Juveniles Bound in
+best English cloth bright colors Any volume sold separately_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=CHARLEY AND EVA STORIES= By Miss L. C. THURSTON
+
+          =How Charley Roberts became a Man=
+          =How Eva Roberts gained her Education=
+          =Home in the West=
+          =Children of Amity Court=
+
+Miss Thurston writes with a purpose. She is an admirer of manly boys and
+womanly girls, and so carries her characters through scenes and
+situations that elevate and purify. The books are by no means slow,
+being full of adventures.
+
+
+=GOLDEN PROVERB SERIES= By Mrs. M. E. BRADLEY and Miss KATE J. NEELY
+
+          =Birds of a Feather=
+          =Fine Feathers do not make Fine Birds=
+          =Handsome is that Handsome Does=
+          =A Wrong Confessed is Half Redressed=
+          =One Good Turn deserves Another=
+          =Actions Speak Louder than Words=
+
+Two capital story-tellers, "birds of a feather," have flocked together,
+and produced from six old proverbs six as bright and taking story-books
+as ever gladdened the hearts of Young America; showing, indeed, that
+"handsome is that handsome does."
+
+
+=GOLDEN RULE STORIES= By Mrs. S. C. B. SAMUELS
+
+          =The Golden Rule=
+          =The Shipwrecked Girl=
+          =Under the Sea=
+          =Nettie's Trial=
+          =The Burning Prairie=
+          =The Smuggler's Cave=
+
+
+CELESTA'S LIBRARY for Boys and Girls
+
+          =Celesta=
+          =Crooked and Straight=
+          =The Crook Straightened=
+          =A Thousand a Year=
+          =Abel Grey=
+          =May Coverley=
+
+Mrs. Samuels has written many attractive books. The scenes and incidents
+she portrays are full of life, action, and interest, and decidedly
+wholesome and instructive.
+
+
+=SALT-WATER DICK STORIES= By MAY MANNERING
+
+          =Climbing the Rope=
+          =Billy Grimes's Favorite=
+          =Cruise of the Dashaway=
+          =The Little Spaniard=
+          =Salt-Water Dick=
+          =Little Maid of Oxbow=
+
+Not all tales of the sea, as the title of the series would imply, but
+stories of many lands by a lady who has been a great traveller, and
+tells what she has seen, in a captivating way.
+
+
+=UPSIDE-DOWN STORIES= By ROSA ABBOTT
+
+          =Jack of all Trades=
+          =Alexis the Runaway=
+          =Tommy Hickup=
+          =Upside Down=
+          =The Young Detective=
+          =The Pinks and Blues=
+
+
+=VACATION STORIES for Boys and Girls= 6 vols. Illustrated
+
+          =Worth not Wealth=
+          =Country Life=
+          =The Charm=
+          =Karl Keigler or The Fortunes of a Foundling=
+          =Walter Seyton=
+          =Holidays at Chestnut Hill=
+
+
+=GREAT ROSY DIAMOND STORIES for Girls= 6 vols. Illustrated
+
+          =The Great Rosy Diamond=
+          =Daisy or The Fairy Spectacles=
+          =Violet a Fairy Story=
+          =Minnie or The Little Woman=
+          =The Angel Children=
+          =Little Blossom's Reward=
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+          NARRATIVES · OF · NOTED----
+                           -------TRAVELLERS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=GERMANY SEEN WITHOUT SPECTACLES; or, Random Sketches of Various
+Subjects, Penned from Different Standpoints in the Empire=
+
+          By HENRY RUGGLES, late United States Consul at the
+          Island of Malta, and at Barcelona, Spain. $1.50.
+
+"Mr. Ruggles writes briskly: he chats and gossips, slashing right and
+left with stout American prejudices, and has made withal a most
+entertaining book."--_New-York Tribune._
+
+
+=TRAVELS AND OBSERVATIONS IN THE ORIENT, with a Hasty Flight in the
+Countries of Europe=
+
+        By WALTER HARRIMAN (ex-Governor of New Hampshire). $1.50.
+
+"The author, in his graphic description of these sacred localities,
+refers with great aptness to scenes and personages which history has
+made famous. It is a chatty narrative of travel."--_Concord Monitor._
+
+
+=FORE AND AFT=
+
+        A Story of Actual Sea-Life. By ROBERT B. DIXON, M.D. $1.25.
+
+Travels in Mexico, with vivid descriptions of manners and customs, form
+a large part of this striking narrative of a fourteen-months' voyage.
+
+
+=VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE=
+
+          A Geographical Journey of Twenty-five Hundred
+          Miles from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico. By
+          NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. With numerous illustrations
+          and maps specially prepared for this work. Crown
+          8vo. $1.50.
+
+"Mr. Bishop did a very bold thing, and has described it with a happy
+mixture of spirit, keen observation, and _bonhomie_."--_London Graphic._
+
+
+=FOUR MONTHS IN A SNEAK-BOX=
+
+        A Boat Voyage of Twenty-six Hundred Miles down the
+          Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and along the Gulf of
+          Mexico. By NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. With numerous maps
+          and illustrations. $1.50.
+
+"His glowing pen-pictures of 'shanty-boat' life on the great rivers are
+true to life. His descriptions of persons and places are
+graphic."--_Zion's Herald._
+
+
+=A THOUSAND MILES' WALK ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA, Over the Pampas and the
+Andes=
+
+        By NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. Crown 8vo. New edition.
+          Illustrated. $1.50.
+
+"Mr. Bishop made this journey when a boy of sixteen, has never forgotten
+it, and tells it in such a way that the reader will always remember it,
+and wish there had been more."
+
+
+=CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES=
+
+        Being the Adventures of a Naturalist Bird-hunting
+          in the West-India Islands. By FRED A. OBER. New
+          edition. With maps and illustrations. $1.50.
+
+"During two years he visited mountains, forests, and people, that few,
+if any, tourists had ever reached before. He carried his camera with
+him, and photographed from nature the scenes by which the book is
+illustrated."--_Louisville Courier-Journal._
+
+
+=ENGLAND FROM A BACK WINDOW; With Views of Scotland and Ireland=
+
+        By J. M. BAILEY, the "'Danbury News' Man." 12mo. $1.00.
+
+"The peculiar humor of this writer is well known. The British Isles have
+never before been looked at in just the same way,--at least, not by any
+one who has notified us of the fact. Mr. Bailey's travels possess,
+accordingly, a value of their own for the reader, no matter how many
+previous records of journeys in the mother country he may have
+read."--_Rochester Express._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+BRIGHT AND BREEZY
+
+BOOKS OF TRAVEL
+
+BY SIX BRIGHT WOMEN
+
+
+=MEXICO--PICTURESQUE, POLITICAL, PROGRESSIVE=
+
+          By MARY E. BLAKE and MARGARET F. SULLIVAN. Cloth,
+          $1.25.
+
+"This is a very charming volume. The writers went through the country
+with their eyes wide open, and they have the faculty of interesting
+others in what was of interest to them."
+
+
+=A WINTER IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO=
+
+          By HELEN J. SANBORN. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"A bright, attractive narrative by a wide-awake Boston girl."
+
+
+=A SUMMER IN THE AZORES, with a Glimpse of Madeira=
+
+        By Miss C. ALICE BAKER. Little Classic style. Cloth,
+          gilt edges, $1.25.
+
+"Miss Baker gives us a breezy, entertaining description of these
+picturesque islands. She is an observing traveller, and makes a graphic
+picture of the quaint people and customs."--_Chicago Advance._
+
+
+=LIFE AT PUGET SOUND=
+
+        With sketches of travel in Washington Territory,
+          British Columbia, Oregon, and California. By
+          CAROLINE C. LEIGHTON. 16mo, cloth, $1.50.
+
+"Your chapters on Puget Sound have charmed me. Full of life, deeply
+interesting, and with just that class of facts, and suggestions of
+truth, that cannot fail to help the Indian and the Chinese."--WENDELL
+PHILLIPS.
+
+
+=EUROPEAN BREEZES=
+
+        By MARGERY DEANE. Cloth, gilt top, $1.50. Being
+          chapters of travel through Germany, Austria,
+          Hungary, and Switzerland, covering places not
+          usually visited by Americans in making "the Grand
+          Tour of the Continent," by the accomplished writer
+          of "Newport Breezes."
+
+"A very bright, fresh and amusing account, which tells us about a host
+of things we never heard of before, and is worth two ordinary books of
+European travel."--_Woman's Journal._
+
+
+=BEATEN PATHS; or, A Woman's Vacation in Europe=
+
+        By ELLA W. THOMPSON. 16mo, cloth. $1.50.
+
+A lively and chatty book of travel, with pen-pictures humorous and
+graphic, that are decidedly out of the "beaten paths" of description.
+
+
+=AN AMERICAN GIRL ABROAD=
+
+        By Miss ADELINE TRAFTON, author of "His Inheritance,"
+          "Katherine Earle," etc. 16mo. Illustrated. $1.50.
+
+"A sparkling account of a European trip by a wide-awake, intelligent,
+and irrepressible American girl. Pictured with a freshness and vivacity
+that is delightful."--_Utica Observer._
+
+
+_CURTIS GUILD'S TRAVELS_
+
+
+=BRITONS AND MUSCOVITES; or, Traits of Two Empires=
+
+          Cloth, $2.00.
+
+
+=OVER THE OCEAN; or, Sights and Scenes in Foreign Lands=
+
+        By CURTIS GUILD, editor of "The Boston Commercial
+          Bulletin." Crown 8vo. Cloth, $2.50.
+
+"The utmost that any European tourist can hope to do is to tell the old
+story in a somewhat fresh way, and Mr. Guild has succeeded in every part
+of his book in doing this."--_Philadelphia Bulletin_.
+
+
+=ABROAD AGAIN; or, Fresh Forays in Foreign Fields=
+
+        Uniform with "Over the Ocean." By the same author.
+          Crown 8vo. Cloth $2.50.
+
+"He has given us a life-picture. Europe is done in a style that must
+serve as an invaluable guide to those who go 'over the ocean,' as well
+as an interesting companion."--_Halifax Citizen._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+YOUNG FOLKS HEROES OF HISTORY
+
+    By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE.
+  Handsomely Illustrated. Price per vol., $1.25. Sets in neat boxes.
+
+
+VASCO DA GAMA:
+
+HIS VOYAGES AND ADVENTURES.
+
+"Da Gama's history is full of striking adventures, thrilling incidents,
+and perilous situations; and Mr. Towle, while not sacrificing historical
+accuracy, has so skilfully used his materials, that we have a charmingly
+romantic tale."--_Rural New-Yorker._
+
+
+PIZARRO:
+
+HIS ADVENTURES AND CONQUESTS.
+
+"No hero of romance possesses greater power to charm the youthful reader
+than the conqueror of Peru. Not even King Arthur, or Thaddeus of Warsaw,
+has the power to captivate the imagination of the growing boy. Mr. Towle
+has handled his subject in a glowing but truthful manner; and we venture
+the assertion, that, were our children led to read such books as this,
+the taste for unwholesome, exciting, wrong-teaching boys' books--dime
+novels in books' clothing--would be greatly diminished, to the great gain
+of mental force and moral purpose in the rising generation."--_Chicago
+Alliance._
+
+
+MAGELLAN;
+
+OR, THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.
+
+"What more of romantic and spirited adventures any bright boy could want
+than is to be found in this series of historical biography, it is
+difficult to imagine. This volume is written in a most sprightly manner;
+and the life of its hero, Fernan Magellan, with its rapid stride from
+the softness of a petted youth to the sturdy courage and persevering
+fortitude of manhood, makes a tale of marvellous fascination."--_Christian
+Union._
+
+
+MARCO POLO:
+
+HIS TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES.
+
+"The story of the adventurous Venetian, who six hundred years ago
+penetrated into India and Cathay and Thibet and Abyssinia, is pleasantly
+and clearly told; and nothing better can be put into the hands of the
+school boy or girl than this series of the records of noted travellers.
+The heroism displayed by these men was certainly as great as that ever
+shown by conquering warrior; and it was exercised in a far nobler
+cause,--the cause of knowledge and discovery, which has made the
+nineteenth century what it is."--_Graphic._
+
+
+RALEGH:
+
+HIS EXPLOITS AND VOYAGES.
+
+"This belongs to the 'Young Folks' Heroes of History' series, and deals
+with a greater and more interesting man than any of its predecessors.
+With all the black spots on his fame, there are few more brilliant and
+striking figures in English history than the soldier, sailor, courtier,
+author, and explorer, Sir Walter Ralegh. Even at this distance of time,
+more than two hundred and fifty years after his head fell on the
+scaffold, we cannot read his story without emotion. It is graphically
+written, and is pleasant reading, not only for young folks, but for old
+folks with young hearts."--_Woman's Journal._
+
+
+DRAKE:
+
+THE SEA-LION OF DEVON.
+
+Drake was the foremost sea-captain of his age, the first English admiral
+to send a ship completely round the world, the hero of the magnificent
+victory which the English won over the Invincible Armada. His career was
+stirring, bold, and adventurous, from early youth to old age.
+
+          LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN
+
+
+=HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW=
+
+        His Life, His Works, His Friendships. By GEORGE
+          LOWELL AUSTIN. Profusely illustrated. Cloth,
+          $2.00. New edition. Formerly published by
+          subscription.
+
+"We have here a clear and popular presentation of the poet's literary
+life. The details of his personal and private life, or at least so much
+of it as belongs by right strictly to his family, has been avoided, and
+that properly. What the public have a right to know is found in this
+volume, in a style that is easy and pleasing. Here you have Longfellow
+as a child, as a college student, and as a professor in Bowdoin College;
+and especially does he appear here as a man of letters. It is a charming
+volume."--_Christian Standard._
+
+
+=LIFE AND TIMES OF WENDELL PHILLIPS=
+
+        By GEORGE LOWELL AUSTIN. With steel portrait and
+          illustrations. Cloth, $1.50. New edition. The only
+          complete Life of the great agitator.
+
+"The life of a man who was so strongly identified with one of the most
+stirring periods in American history must necessarily be one of much
+interest, and Mr. Austin has succeeded in presenting its features in a
+very attractive way. Portions of Mr. Phillips's most important public
+addresses are given, and there are reminiscences of the man by some of
+his close friends and associates."--_Philadelphia Record._
+
+  Wendell Phillips's Lectures, Orations, and Letters, to 1861.
+        563 pages.
+    Library edition. 8vo                                          $2 50
+    Popular edition, with Biographical Sketch, 16mo                1 00
+  The Scholar in a Republic. Paper, 8vo                              25
+  Eulogy of Garrison. Paper, 8vo                                     25
+  Lost Arts. Paper, 8vo                                              25
+  Daniel O'Connell. Paper, 8vo                                       25
+  Labor Question. Paper, 8vo                                         25
+
+
+=LIFE AND DEEDS OF GENERAL U. S. GRANT=
+
+        By Rev. P. C. HEADLEY and GEORGE LOWELL AUSTIN.
+          Profusely illustrated. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+The materials for the early years of the subject of this popular
+biography were furnished by the immediate friends and relatives of his
+family. The events bearing upon the war history are based upon the
+recognized authorities, and will stand the test of military criticism.
+The work is intensely interesting, and exceedingly popular.
+
+
+=Oliver Optic's OUR STANDARD BEARER=
+
+        Or the Life of General ULYSSES S. GRANT, his
+          youth, his manhood, his campaign, and his eminent
+          services in the reconstruction of the nation his
+          sword has redeemed, as seen and related by Captain
+          BERNARD GALLYGASKEN, Cosmopolitan, and written out
+          by OLIVER OPTIC. _A new edition_, with
+          supplementary chapters, containing the political
+          life of the general, his travels abroad, his
+          sickness and death. Cloth; illustrated by THOMAS
+          NAST and others, elegantly bound, $1.50.
+
+"It is written in Mr. Adams's happiest vein, and is a most unique and
+interesting presentation of a subject upon which volumes have been
+written and read."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+POPULAR READING FOR HOME AND SCHOOL
+
+BY POPULAR AUTHORS
+
+
+JANE ANDREWS' BOOKS
+
+=THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS WHO LIVE ON THE ROUND BALL THAT FLOATS IN THE
+AIR=
+
+        New edition, with an introduction by LOUISA
+          PARSONS HOPKINS Illustrated School edition cloth
+          50 cents Library edition cloth 80 cents
+
+
+=THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS PROVE THEIR SISTERHOOD (Former title EACH AND
+ALL)=
+
+        Illustrated School edition cloth 50 cents Library
+          edition cloth 80 cents
+
+
+=TEN BOYS WHO LIVED ON THE ROAD FROM LONG AGO TO NOW=
+
+          20 illustrations Cloth 80 cents
+
+
+=GEOGRAPHICAL PLAYS FOR YOUNG FOLKS AT SCHOOL AND AT HOME=
+
+        Price each play in paper 15 cents postage paid 1
+          United States 2 Europe 3 Asia 4 Africa and South
+          America 5 Australia and Isles of the Sea 6 The
+          Commerce of the World
+
+          The above bound in one volume Cloth $1.00 postage
+          paid
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=GRADED SUPPLEMENTARY READING=
+
+        For use in schools By Professor TWEED, late
+          Supervisor of Boston Public Schools 12 parts
+          ready: Nos. 1, 4, 7 and 10, 1st year primary; Nos.
+          2, 5, 8 and 11, 2d year primary; Nos. 3, 6, 9 and
+          12, 3d year primary In brown paper covers 4 cents
+          each: by mail 5 cents The four parts for each year
+          bound together in boards 20 cents each First year
+          primary in one volume boards 20 cents Second year
+          primary in one volume boards 20 cents Third year
+          primary in one volume boards 20 cents
+
+
+HISTORICAL READINGS
+
+
+=YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES=
+
+        By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON With over 100
+          illustrations $1.20
+
+
+=YOUNG FOLKS' BOOK OF AMERICAN EXPLORERS=
+
+          By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON Illustrated $1.20
+
+
+=HANDBOOK OF ENGLISH HISTORY=
+
+        Based on Guest's "Lectures on English History,"
+          and brought down to the year 1880 With a
+          Supplementary Chapter on the English Literature of
+          the 19th Century By F. H. UNDERWOOD, LL.D. With
+          maps, chronological tables etc. School edition 90
+          cents
+
+
+=YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND=
+
+        By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE Illustrated School edition 60 cents
+
+
+=YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF IRELAND=
+
+        By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE With introduction by JOHN BOYLE
+          O'REILLY Illustrated School edition 60 cents
+
+
+=HEROES OF HISTORY= By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE Illustrated
+
+        Vasco de Gama: his Voyages and Adventures School edition 60
+          cents
+        Pizarro: his Adventures and Conquests School edition 60 cents
+        Magellan: or The First Voyage Round the World School edition
+          60 cents
+        Marco Polo: his Travels and Adventures School edition 60 cents
+        Raleigh: his Voyages and Adventures School edition 60 cents
+        Drake the Sea King of Devon School edition 60 cents
+
+
+=THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY= By Mrs. L. B. MONROE 80 cents
+
+
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Italics are indicated by
+_underscores_ and bold text is shown by =equal signs=.
+
+Varied hyphenation was retained.
+
+Page 106, "haye" changed to "have" (I have had so)
+
+Page 253, "sucessfully" changed to "successfully" (not working
+successfully)
+
+The spelling of "Ralegh: His Exploits" is actually the title of the book
+by Towle.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hope Mills, by Amanda M. Douglas
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30436 ***